Prolonged drought can alter not only physical health and food access, but also the cultural norms, livelihoods and settlement patterns that shape daily life, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers and conducted during a historic drought in northern Kenya.

A new global forest study that better reflects natural conditions has found that trees do not substantially alter their physiological traits to cope with prolonged drought. The study, led by researchers from the South China Botanical Garden (SCBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), is based on 40 throughfall reduction experiments conducted across forests worldwide and represents one of the most comprehensive field-based assessments of drought acclimation to date.

In a paper published in SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences, a team of researchers conducted a series of CESM2 ensemble simulations under SSP2-4.5 to examine the impact of marine cloud brightening (MCB) on terrestrial drought. By injecting sea salt aerosols over certain subtropical ocean regions, they found that MCB could produce about 0.9°C global cooling and mitigate global land drying trend via reduced potential evapotranspiration by 2100 relative to that of SSP2-4.5. However, regional differences in drought response to MCB are evident, indicating the underlying complexity of terrestrial hydrological responses to artificial climate intervention. It sheds new light on the potential and risks of solar geoengineering for drought mitigation.

Hot temperatures during development can alter the scales that create Morpho butterflies’ brilliant blue iridescence, leaving adults with duller colors.

Osaka Metropolitan University researchers have demonstrated that a coconut-derived biofuel produced from off-grade coconuts can be used in aviation gas turbine engines. Combustion tests showed thermal efficiency comparable to conventional Jet A-1 fuel, highlighting the biofuel’s potential as a sustainable aviation fuel alternative.

Over the last quarter of a century, the edge of the summer sea-ice in the Greenland Sea has shrunk steadily northwards. Now, researchers have shown from systematic surveys and field reports that this change has drawn exceptionally large congregations from three species of baleen whales to the coastal waters east of Greenland, adding up to approximately 16,000 animals per summer. The authors concluded that the whales have moved in to feed en masse on capelin, a fish that has recently shifted its geographic distribution northwards towards these exceptionally fast-warming waters.