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Decadal climate variability has long received limited attention. With the slow-down in surface warming since the late 1990s, the decadal scale has rightly become a focus of attention: for assessing climate change and its impacts, it is of critical importance.

Lead (Pb) isotopes from a ferromanganese crust reveal that during lukewarm interglacials before the Mid-Brunhes Event, stronger deep Southern Ocean stratification limited CO₂ release, helping keep atmospheric CO₂ levels lower.

Analysing a global database of >40,000 tundra plant phenological observations monitored for up to 20 years, the authors show that community-level flowering has been contracting in response to recent warming, in contrast to findings from lower latitudes.

Thermophilization is a change in species community composition towards greater abundances of species associated with warmer environments. This study provides evidence of thermophilization in understudied Afromontane forests, but with drivers that are distinct from other forest types.

The influence of surface ponding on the interior of ice shelves is currently unknown. Here, the authors combine surface and borehole geophysics on the Larsen C Ice Shelf, Antarctica, with remote sensing and modelling and show how pond refreezing increases ice shelf density and temperature.

The authors identify changes in insect distribution across Great Britain since 1990. The changes appear connected to insect traits, notably with species with multiple generations per year benefiting from increasing temperatures, particularly in the North.

Silane, which is a precursor to the sandy surfaces of rocky planets and dusty clouds on gas giants, is seen directly in another world—a low-metallicity brown dwarf in which oxidation is slow and gas mixing is fast.

Thermal bias may predict the impact of climate change. Looking at regional warming and marine bivalves, brachiopods, and gastropods in the early Jurassic, the authors find that species with cooler temperature preferences than local conditions were more likely to become extirpated or extinct.

A review of observation-based evidence suggests that four interconnected Earth system tipping elements have moved towards their critical thresholds, highlighting the need for better monitoring and increased mitigation efforts.

The energetic costs of seasonal bird migration are challenging to measure. Here bio-loggers paired with radio telemetry and energetic modelling show that blackbirds offset the energetic cost of migration by decreasing heart rate and body temperature 28 days before departure but do not decrease total daily energy expenditure in warmer wintering areas.

Detailed mapping of the distribution of water and semiheavy water in the coma of Halley-type comet 12P implies a D/H ratio that is consistent with that of Earth’s water, indicating a common heritage.

The temperature-sensitivity of soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC) export is widely debated but limited by the duration of observations. New data from environmental archives supports a pronounced sensitivity between soil DOC leaching and warming.

This study reveals the spatial and temporal patterns of temperature buffer inside the tropical forests. It provides insights into the forests’ microclimate that controls the functioning of living organisms residing under the forest canopy.

This study shows that changes in ocean gateways near the end of the Mesozoic (~66 Ma) altered global ocean salinity and circulation, reshaping climate patterns through combined reconfigurations in the Arctic and Central American regions.

Wood density is an important plant trait. Data from 1.1 million forest inventory plots and 10,703 tree species show a latitudinal gradient in wood density, with temperature and soil moisture explaining variation at the global scale and disturbance also having a role at the local level.

High-resolution speleothem records and an isotope-enabled climate model suggest distinct responses of East Asian summer monsoon δ¹⁸O to various kinds of interstadials, driven by nuanced shifts of Westerlies modulated by high-latitude warming intensity.

Extensive flat surfaces observed beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet margin were formed by fluvial erosion and have modulated the ice-sheet response to climate change, according to an analysis of radio-echo sounding data.

Remotely sensed NDVI data and contemporary field data from 84 grasslands on 6 continents show increasing divergence in aboveground plant biomass between sites in different bioclimatic regions.

Using a globally distributed standardized aerial sampling of fungal spores, we show that the hyperdiverse kingdom of fungi follows globally highly predictable spatial and temporal dynamics, with seasonality in both species richness and community composition increasing with latitude.

Lake fisheries are vulnerable to environmental changes. Here, Kao et al. develop a Bayesian networks model to analyze time-series data from 31 major fisheries lake across five continents, showing that fish catches can respond either positively or negatively to climate and land-use changes.

The effects of climate change on the yield and aroma of beer hops remains unknown. Here the authors demonstrate a climate-induced decline in the quality and quantity of traditional aroma hops across Europe and calls for urgent adaptation measures to stabilize international market chains.

Reconstruction of the Eemian interglacial from the new NEEM ice core shows that in spite of a climate warmer by eight degrees Celsius in Northern Greenland than that of the past millennium, the ice here was only a few hundred metres lower than its present level.

Tropical forest leaves are expected to absorb more of the Sun’s energy with climate warming, which could further increase global temperatures.

Many species’ life cycles have moved earlier in the year because of climate change, but we do not know the consequences for range expansions. The authors show that these advances promote range expansions in species with multiple reproductive cycles per year, but not in species with only one.

Reliably probing rejuvenation and memory effects in spin glasses by means of simulations is difficult. Now, a state-of-the-art numerical study shows that at least three different length scales play a crucial role in aging dynamics of spin glasses.

Global-scale analyses of marine, terrestrial and freshwater assemblages found that temporal rates of species replacement were faster in locations with faster temperature change, including warming and cooling, and vulnerable assemblages were especially responsive.

A collaborative study initiated by the sovereign nation of Picuris Pueblo in the Northern Rio Grande region of New Mexico addresses gaps in traditional knowledge and furthers understanding of their population history and ancestry.

A climatic record from desert speleothems shows that the central Arabian interior experienced recurrent humid intervals over the past 8 million years, which likely facilitated mammalian dispersals between Africa and Eurasia.

Analyses of the relationships between temperature, moisture and seven key plant functional traits across the tundra and over time show that community height increased with warming across all sites, whereas other traits lagged behind predicted rates of change.

The authors use climate models and show that projected declining and weakening Arctic sea ice, combined with stronger winds, will enhance ocean surface stress. This increased momentum transfer will spin up surface currents, leading to a more energetic Arctic Ocean in the future.

Conducting a simulated turtlegrass herbivory experiment across 650 experimental plots and 13 seagrass meadows, the authors show that the negative effects of herbivory increase with latitude, driven by low levels of light insolation at high latitudes.

Predicting species responses to climate change may be complicated by the influence of other factors. Here, the authors report that warming is linked to terrestrial and freshwater community shifts towards warm-adapted species overall, but body size, thermal niche breadth, species richness and baseline temperature modulate the trends.

Trees come in all shapes and size, but what drives this incredible variation in tree form remains poorly understood. Using a global dataset, the authors show that a combination of climate, competition, disturbance and evolutionary history shape the crown architecture of the world’s trees and thereby constrain the 3D structure of woody ecosystems.

Bleaching threatens corals worldwide as the oceans warm from climate change. Here the authors provide insight into intergenerational acclimatization potential by identifying metabolomic signatures of coral resistance to bleaching at all stages of development, including in the new generation.

Ecologists often leverage patterns observed across spatial climate gradients to predict the impacts of climate change (space-for-time substitution). We highlight evidence that this can be misleading not just in the magnitude but in the direction of effects, explain why, and make suggestions for improving the reliability of ecological forecasts.

Hou et al. propose, based on dinocysts, clumped isotopes and ice sheet modelling, that during Miocene cooling, the Antarctic ice sheet progressively lowered in height while expanding seawards, to maintain a relatively stable volume.

Analysis of two-million-year-old ancient environmental DNA from the Kap København Formation in North Greenland shows there was an open boreal forest with diverse plant and animal species, of which several taxa have not previously been detected at the site, representing an ecosystem that has no present-day analogue.

Reversal agents are intravenous drugs used to accelerate recovery from neuromuscular block post-surgery. We report that inhibition of ClC-1, a skeletal muscle chloride channel, reverses any nondepolarizing blocking agent, providing a novel reversal (antagonism) mechanism.

The authors use experimental and modelling approaches to understand the response of microbial photosynthesis to peatland warming. They show that warming amplifies microbial photosynthesis, which could offset rising CO₂ emissions from northern peatlands by 6.0–13.7% in 2100 (SSP 2-4.5–SSP 5-8.5).

A review of Earth system changes associated with past warmer climates provides constraints on the environmental changes that could occur under warming of 2 °C or more over pre-industrial temperatures.

In this study, the authors report the CoVerage tool (www.sarscoverage.org) for viral genomic surveillance and show that it predicted SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern, of Interest and under Monitoring together with their antigenic and evolutionary alterations almost three months prior to their WHO designation.

Scrutinizing the empirical evidence for bidirectional trade-offs in fine root traits, the authors show that while these are important in explaining species occurrences along broad temperature and water availability gradients, unidirectional benefits are prevalent.

Biodiversity time series from temperate regions reveal that marine communities in warmer places gain species but lose individuals with warming, but colder environments show weaker trends, whereas no systematic relationships between biodiversity and temperature change were detectable for terrestrial communities.

Recently, an eDNA metabarcoding data set was used to describe northern high-latitude vegetation during the past 50,000 years. Here, Zobel et al. use the data set to examine how the abundance of key plant mutualistic traits changed during this period and discuss possible environmental drivers.