Collapse

A paper published Monday in Nature Medicine found that the tiny fragments of plastic are passing the blood-brain barrier and into human brains, and the amount of microplastics in the brain appears to be increasing over time. The concentration of microplastics in analyzed brains rose by about 50 percent from 2016 to 2024.

Abstract

Surface crevassing on the Greenland Ice Sheet is a large source of uncertainty in processes controlling mass loss due to a lack of comprehensive observations of their location and evolution through time. Here we use high-resolution digital elevation models to map the three-dimensional volume of crevasse fields across the Greenland Ice Sheet in 2016 and 2021. We show that, between the two years, large and significant increases in crevasse volume occurred at marine-terminating sectors with accelerating flow (up to +25.3 ± 10.1% in the southeast sector), while the change in total ice-sheet-wide crevasse volume was within measurement error (+4.3 ± 5.9%). The sectoral increases were offset by a reduction in crevasse volume in the central west sector (−14.2 ± 3.2%), particularly at Sermeq Kujalleq (Jakobshavn Isbræ), which exhibited slowdown and thickening over the study period. Changes in crevasse volume correlate strongly with antecedent discharge changes, indicating that the acceleration of ice flow in Greenland forces significant increases in crevassing on a timescale of less than five years. This response provides a mechanism for mass-loss-promoting feedbacks on sub-decadal timescales, including increased calving, faster flow and accelerated water transfer to the bed.

edit: This is older than I realized (2023/2024), but it's still interesting so I'll keep it up.

the researchers say this means that much more methane could potentially be vulnerable and released into the atmosphere as a result of climate warming

The new data clearly show that far larger volumes of methane may be liberated from marine hydrates**___**

Abstract Resilience—the ability of socio-ecological systems to withstand and recover from shocks—is a key research and policy focus. Definitions of resilience differ between disciplines, however, and the term remains inadequately operationalized. Resilience is the outcome of variable behavioral decisions, yet the process itself and the strategies behind it have rarely been addressed quantitatively. We present an agent-based model integrating four common risk management strategies, observed in past and present societies. Model outcomes under different environmental regimes, and in relation to key case studies, provide a mapping between the efficacy (success in harm prevention) and efficiency (cost of harm prevention) of different behavioral strategies. This formalization unravels the historical contingency of dynamic socio-natural processes in the context of crises. In discriminating between successful and failed risk management strategies deployed in the past—the emergent outcome of which is resilience—we are better placed to understand and to some degree predict their utility in the contemporary world.

Scale from 1 to 10 how are we feeling?

Abstract

Global mean sea surface temperature (GMSST) is a fundamental diagnostic of ongoing climate change, yet there is incomplete understanding of multi-decadal changes in warming rate and year-to-year variability. Exploiting satellite observations since 1985 and a statistical model incorporating drivers of variability and change, we identify an increasing rate of rise in GMSST. This accelerating ocean surface warming is physically linked to an upward trend in Earth's energy imbalance (EEI). We quantify that GMSST has increased by 0.54 0.07 K for each GJ m–2 of accumulated energy, equivalent to 0.17 ± 0.02 K decade‒1 (W m‒2)‒1. Using the statistical model to isolate the trend from interannual variability, the underlying rate of change of GMSST rises in proportion with Earth's energy accumulation from 0.06 K decade–1 during 1985–89 to 0.27 K decade–1 for 2019–23. While variability associated with the El Niño Southern Oscillation triggered the exceptionally high GMSSTs of 2023 and early 2024, 44% (90% confidence interval: 35%–52%) of the +0.22 K difference in GMSST between the peak of the 2023/24 event and that of the 2015/16 event is unexplained unless the acceleration of the GMSST trend is accounted for. Applying indicative future scenarios of EEI based on recent trends, GMSST increases are likely to be faster than would be expected from linear extrapolation of the past four decades. Our results provide observational evidence that the GMSST increase inferred over the past 40 years will likely be exceeded within the next 20 years. Policy makers and wider society should be aware that the rate of global warming over recent decades is a poor guide to the faster change that is likely over the decades to come, underscoring the urgency of deep reductions in fossil-fuel burning.

Interesting work here.

Another (small) piece to add to the AMOC puzzle.

Abstract

Tropical marine low cloud feedback is key to the uncertainty in climate sensitivity, and it depends on the warming pattern of sea surface temperatures (SSTs). Here, we empirically constrain this feedback in two major low cloud regions, the tropical Pacific and Atlantic, using interannual variability. Low cloud sensitivities to local SST and to remote SST, represented by lower-troposphere temperature, are poorly captured in many models of the latest global climate model ensemble, especially in the less-studied tropical Atlantic. The Atlantic favors large positive cloud feedback that appears difficult to reconcile with the Pacific—we apply a Pareto optimization approach to elucidate trade-offs between the conflicting observational constraints. Examining ~200,000 possible combinations of model subensembles, this multi-objective observational constraint narrows the cloud feedback uncertainty among climate models, nearly eliminates the possibility of a negative tropical shortwave cloud feedback in CO2-induced warming, and suggests a 71% increase in the tropical shortwave cloud feedback.

EROEI angle absent.

Abstract

Freshwater ecosystems are highly biodiverse1 and important for livelihoods and economic development2, but are under substantial stress3. To date, comprehensive global assessments of extinction risk have not included any speciose groups primarily living in freshwaters. Consequently, data from predominantly terrestrial tetrapods4,5 are used to guide environmental policy6 and conservation prioritization7, whereas recent proposals for target setting in freshwaters use abiotic factors8,9,10,11,12,13. However, there is evidence14,15,16,17 that such data are insufficient to represent the needs of freshwater species and achieve biodiversity goals18,19. Here we present the results of a multi-taxon global freshwater fauna assessment for The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species covering 23,496 decapod crustaceans, fishes and odonates, finding that one-quarter are threatened with extinction. Prevalent threats include pollution, dams and water extraction, agriculture and invasive species, with overharvesting also driving extinctions. We also examined the degree of surrogacy of both threatened tetrapods and freshwater abiotic factors (water stress and nitrogen) for threatened freshwater species. Threatened tetrapods are good surrogates when prioritizing sites to maximize rarity-weighted richness, but poorer when prioritizing based on the most range-restricted species. However, they are much better surrogates than abiotic factors, which perform worse than random. Thus, although global priority regions identified for tetrapod conservation are broadly reflective of those for freshwater faunas, given differences in key threats and habitats, meeting the needs of tetrapods cannot be assumed sufficient to conserve freshwater species at local scales.