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Soil microbial populations bloom and then die-off in ecosystems with seasonal snowpack. This study showed that distinct taxa utilize different N sources for growth or energy during the microbial bloom and alter the fate of N after snowmelt.

De novo domestication was performed on the brassica Thlaspi arvense (pennycress) by identifying and stacking CRISPR-induced mutations to create a new intermediate oilseed crop that can be grown in the off-season, with seed compositions similar to canola (low erucic acid and reduced glucosinolate).

Robbie Waugh and colleagues report that the EARLINESS PER SE (EPS2) locus is associated with spring growth habit and environmental adaptation in barley. Resequencing the barley homolog of CENTRORADIALIS, located within the EPS2 locus, in 216 spring and 207 winter barley accessions identified haplotypes at HvCEN that correspond with winter or spring growth habit.

Citizen science data are increasingly used in biodiversity monitoring. This study applies a digital twin approach to biodiversity monitoring using a large citizen science dataset on birds from Finland, demonstrating its potential for ecological forecasting.

An ensemble of climate model simulations, as well as hydrological modelling and flood risk mapping, are used to show the role of anthropogenic warming on the extreme rainfall that caused the 2013/14 floods in southern England.

EGFR inhibitors are standard of care in patients with EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) but resistance often develops. Here the authors report that the evolution of EGFR inhibitor resistance in EGFR-mutant NSCLC results in a sensitivity to the compound, MCB-613, and investigate the underlying mechanism of action.

The authors consider the complex effects of climate change on winter wheat in the United States. They show that snow cover insulation weakened yield sensitivity to freezing stress by 22% from 1999 to 2019, but project that future reduced snow cover will offset up to one-third of the yield benefit from reduced frost.

Humanity’s Last Exam, a multi-modal benchmark at the frontier of human knowledge, is designed to be an expert-level closed-ended academic benchmark with broad subject coverage.

Winter warming in the Arctic will increase the CO₂ flux from soils. A pan-Arctic analysis shows a current loss of 1,662 TgC per year over the winter, exceeding estimated carbon uptake in the growing season; projections suggest a 17% increase under RCP 4.5 and a 41% increase under RCP 8.5 by 2100.

Glacier meltwater can penetrate the glacier bed and act as a lubricant, accelerating retreat. Here, the authors use the unique Glacsweb wireless probe at Skálafellsjökull in Iceland and find evidence for two types of stick-slip events: small diurnal events in summer and large multiday events in winter.

Here, the authors examine the mechanisms behind cheatgrass’s successful invasion of North American ecosystems. Their genetic analyses and common garden experiments demonstrate that multiple introductions and migrations facilitated cheatgrass local adaptation.

Using satellite ocean-color data, this study reveals a 20-year decline in plankton biomass in a major nitrogen-fixation hotspot, suggesting reduced nitrogen inputs and potential implications for global biogeochemical cycles and climate regulation.

Oat is an important food crop, but the genetic diversity within the gene pool remains unclear. Here, the authors report the analyses of worldwide diversity and population structure of hexaploid oat, and identify signatures of structural rearrangements within the germplasm collection.

Natural disasters induce power outages with unequal impacts on poverty and non-poverty counties in China. Climate change will further exacerbate this disparity.

The long-term natural history of long-COVID is not well understood. In this population-based cohort study from Scotland, the authors describe symptom prevalence and health-related quality of life up to 18 months after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test and compare with matched test-negative controls.

Wastewater-based surveillance tends to focus on specific pathogens. Here, the authors mapped the wastewater virome from 62 cities worldwide to identify over 2,500 viruses, revealing city-specific virome fingerprints and showing that wastewater metagenomics enables early detection of emerging viruses.

During the Last Glacial Maximum, the deep Northwest Atlantic was only about 2 °C colder than today, suggesting sustained production of relatively warm North Atlantic Deep Water during the Last Glacial Maximum.

Demand for agricultural water resources under climate change may come into conflict with achieving positive environmental outcomes. In Australia’s Macquarie basin, environmentally minded management can ensure agricultural needs are met without sacrificing environmental outcomes.

Submarine melting has been suggested as a trigger for the widespread acceleration of tidewater glaciers in Greenland. An analysis of oceanographic data from the fjord off Helheim Glacier, Greenland, suggests the presence of light Arctic and dense Atlantic waters in the fjord and that the melting circulation is more complex than thought.

A wide range of policies and actions can be used to address energy insecurity, and there are many actors and institutions to carry them out. This Perspective provides an overview of the many levers, or opportunities, that electricity sector actors have to reduce energy insecurity and affordability in the United States.

Data from the oil- and gas-producing basin of northeastern Utah and a box model are used to assess the photochemical reactions of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds that lead to excessive atmospheric ozone pollution in winter.

Many tumours exhibit hypoxia (low oxygen) and hypoxic tumours often respond poorly to therapy. Here, the authors quantify hypoxia in 1188 tumours from 27 cancer types, showing elevated hypoxia links to increased mutational load, directing evolutionary trajectories.

Amphibians have seen large population declines, but the key drivers are hard to establish. Here, Miller et al. investigate trends of occupancy for 81 species of amphibians across North America and find greater sensitivity to water availability during breeding and winter conditions than mean climate.

Literature produced inconsistent findings regarding the links between extreme weather events and climate policy support across regions, populations and events. This global study offers a holistic assessment of these relationships and highlights the role of subjective attribution.

ENSO end members El Niño and La Niña are linked to elevated coastal hazards across the Pacific region. Here, the authors show that the wave conditions and coastal response for the 2015–16 El Niño indicate that it was one of the most significant events of the last 145 years.

Arboviruses are climate sensitive, and their global distributions are changing. Here, the authors describe results of a One Health study programme to investigate the occurrence of Usutu and West Nile Virus in the Netherlands, a previously non-endemic area.

Wheat breeding programmes improve yield by enhancing biotic and abiotic stress resistance. This study reveals that high temperature extremes adversely affect the productivity of new elite wheat breeding lines, and that future yield gains may be outpaced by the rapid advance of climate change.

Extreme winter flooding has caused devastation across Europe in recent years, highlighting the need for improved forecasts. Here, the authors show that the use of water vapour transport, rather than precipitation in weather prediction models, can extend the forecast horizon by as much as 3 days.

Field evidence reveals that bubble-mediated CO2 transfer favors invasion. The authors introduce an asymmetric bulk flux equation, suggesting that the global ocean may absorb ~15% more CO2 than previously estimated.

Our assessment of a 27-country weather station dataset in the Mediterranean region revealed long-term stability in precipitation over 150 years, along with substantial short-term variability on annual to decadal scales driven by atmospheric circulation; these findings align with the precipitation trends seen in CMIP6 models.

This study uses data-driven modelling to predict a 24–91% increase in methane emissions from global lakes and reservoirs by 2080–2099 under various climate scenarios. Temperature and seasonality changes are key drivers, highlighting the need for climate action.

Seasonal variation in K isotopes of rivers that drain the Chinese Loess Plateau indicates that riverine K isotopes can trace changes in silicate weathering intensity over time, offering a tool to track Earth’s climate–rock interactions.

The interactions between atmospheric rivers and large-scale climate teleconnections modulate the timing and magnitude of vegetation and fire responses across North America, according to remote sensing, teleconnection index, and reanalysis data analyses.

Picks include a quantum pioneer, a co-discoverer of Ebola and a bioethicist-turned-activist.