More Like this

1. Southern Ocean carbon export efficiency in relation to temperature and primary productivity

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-70417-z  

   Fan, Gaojing ; Han, Zhengbing ; Ma, Wentao ; Chen, Shuangling ; Chai, Fei ; Mazloff, Matthew R. ; Pan, Jianming ; Zhang, Haisheng ( December 2020 , Scientific Reports)

   null (Ed.)
2. How small changes in a protein can have large impacts on human health

   https://doi.org/10.33424/FUTURUM239  

   Tan, Dongyan ( March 2022 , Futurum Careers)

   IN THE TAN LAB AT STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, US, DR DONGYAN TAN IS LEADING A TEAM OF EARLY CAREER SCIENTISTS WHO ARE UNCOVERING THE STRUCTURES AND FUNCTIONS OF CHROMATIN. THESE DNA-PROTEIN COMPLEXES ARE ESSENTIAL FOR LIFE. SLIGHT VARIATIONS IN THEIR STRUCTURE CAN RESULT IN DISEASES, SO IT IS CRITICAL FOR SCIENTISTS TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THEM. 

   more » « less
3. Recent land cover changes in the Southwestern US lead to an increase in surface temperature

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2020.108246  

   Duman, Tomer ; Huang, Cheng-Wei ; Litvak, Marcy E. ( February 2021 , Agricultural and Forest Meteorology)

   null (Ed.)
4. Temperature extremes: geographic patterns, recent changes, and implications for organismal vulnerabilities

   https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13313  

   Buckley, Lauren B. ; Huey, Raymond B. ( May 2016 , Global Change Biology)

   Extreme temperatures can injure or kill organisms and can drive evolutionary patterns. Many indices of extremes have been proposed, but few attempts have been made to establish geographic patterns of extremes and to evaluate whether they align with geographic patterns in biological vulnerability and diversity. To examine these issues, we adopt theCLIMDEXindices of thermal extremes. We compute scores for each index on a geographic grid during a baseline period (1961–1990) and separately for the recent period (1991–2010). Heat extremes (temperatures above the 90th percentile during the baseline period) have become substantially more common during the recent period, particularly in the tropics. Importantly, the various indices show weak geographic concordance, implying that organisms in different regions will face different forms of thermal stress. The magnitude of recent shifts in indices is largely uncorrelated with baseline scores in those indices, suggesting that organisms are likely to face novel thermal stresses. Organismal tolerances correlate roughly with absolute metrics (mainly for cold), but poorly with metrics defined relative to local conditions. Regions with high extreme scores do not correlate closely with regions with high species diversity, human population density, or agricultural production. Even though frequency and intensity of extreme temperature events have – and are likely to have – major impacts on organisms, the impacts are likely to be geographically and taxonomically idiosyncratic and difficult to predict.

    

   more » « less
5. It’s the Heat and the Humidity: The Complementary Roles of Temperature and Specific Humidity to Recent Changes in the Energy Content of the Near‐Surface Atmosphere

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL096628  

   Stoy, P. C. ; Roh, J. ; Bromley, G. T. ( February 2022 , Geophysical Research Letters)

   Global climate change is a change in the planetary energy (E) balance. It is usually expressed as a change in near‐surface air temperature (T_a), but changes in energy content due toT_a(E_T) represent only part of the near‐surface energy balance, which also includesEchanges due to specific humidity (E_SH). We analyzed MERRA‐2 and ERA5 reanalysis data and 15 CMIP6 Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP) models from 1980 to 2014. Some 44%, 39%, and 50% of MERRA‐2 pixels showed significant increases inE_T,E_SH, andE, respectively. The average increase inE_T(E_SH) was 16.9 (13.6) J kg⁻¹ year⁻¹, but AMIP models estimated larger averageE_T(21.6 J kg⁻¹ year⁻¹) andE_SH(16.7 J kg⁻¹ year⁻¹). GlobalT_awould have increased at nearly double the observed rate if energy was not partitioned into latent heat. Results demonstrate the critical role that specific humidity plays in recent climate changes.

    

   more » « less