Research led by polar scientists from Northumbria University has revealed new hope in natural environmental systems found in East Antarctica which could help mitigate the overall rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over long timescales.

As Antarctica's ice sheets thin due to climate change, newly exposed mountain peaks could significantly increase the supply of vital nutrients to the Southern Ocean which surrounds the continent, potentially enhancing its ability to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to the research published in Nature Communications.

An international study published today in Communications Biology has used unique coral reefs in Papua New Guinea to determine the likely impact of ocean acidification on coral reefs in the face of climate change.

Oceans are becoming more acidic as they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and that acid will dissolve coral limestone. But it’s hard to predict what impact this will have on whole ecosystems from studies using aquariums and models.

The research team, led by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), studied entire coral reefs, locally enriched with CO₂ that is seeping from the sea floor, near some of Papua New Guinea’s remote shallow submarine volcanoes.

Dr. Katharina Fabricius, a coral researcher at AIMS in Townsville and senior author on the paper, says the research has revealed which species can thrive under lifelong exposure to elevated CO₂.

“These unique natural laboratories are like a time machine,” said Dr Fabricius.  

“The CO₂ seeps have allowed us to study the reefs’ tolerance limits and make predictions. How will coral reefs cope if emissions are in line with the Paris Agreement level emissions? How will they respond to higher CO₂ emissions scenarios?”

With climate change expected to intensify heatwaves, flooding and air pollution in cities worldwide, why are we not tapping into the full potential of nature-based solutions? An international study led by the University of Surrey’s Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE) in collaboration with 86 specialists across 11 countries explores the current barriers hindering the implementation of green and blue infrastructure (GBI) that could help build climate resilience – such as parks, trees, rivers, wetlands and green roofs. 

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, today presented a 26-member team with the ACM Gordon Bell Prize for Climate Modelling in recognition of their project “Computing the Full Earth System at 1 km Resolution.” The award honors innovative contributions to parallel computing toward solving the global climate crisis.

Native Australian animals range from high-hopping kangaroos to fast-running emus – but clever little bettongs also have a special ability to find and eat the food they love.  

Flinders University researchers have discovered the secrets behind a superpower of these tiny relatives of kangaroos which allows them to crack open seeds that would break the jaws of most animals. They hope the research will help conservation efforts, including finding suitable locations to reintroduce populations severely impacted by predation and habitat loss.  

Researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) and collaborators at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) have used quantum mechanical simulations to reveal how tiny imperfections in ice's crystal structure dramatically alter how ice absorbs and emits light.