Nature Climate Change Contents February 2012 Volume 2 Number 2 pp 59-132

TABLE OF CONTENTS February 2012 Volume 2, Issue 2 In This Issue Editorial Commentaries Snapshots Books and Arts Interview Policy Watch Market Watch Correction Research Highlights News and Views Letters Article Beyond Boundaries Subscribe   Facebook   RSS   Recommend to library   Twitter   Advertisement Planet Under Pressure 2012: New Knowledge Towards Solutions 26-29 March 2012, London, UK REGISTER NOW Join more than 2500 delegates and renowned plenary speakers at this major international conference. More than 100 sessions and side events will provide a state of the planet assessment for Rio +20. Final programme now available at www.planetunderpressure2012.net   In This Issue Top In this issue doi:10.1038/nclimate1401 Full Text | PDF Editorial Top Cool response to Durban compromise p59 doi:10.1038/nclimate1411 The Durban conference on climate change made progress of sorts, but the hardest decisions have been deferred. Full Text | PDF Commentaries Top Abrupt climate change in the Arctic pp60 - 62 Carlos M. Duarte, Timothy M. Lenton, Peter Wadhams and Paul Wassmann doi:10.1038/nclimate1386 Semantic arguments about the definition of 'tipping points' are distracting attention away from the causes and impacts of climate change in the Arctic. Full Text | PDF Higher standards for sustainable building materials pp62 - 64 Jorge L. Contreras, Meghan Lewis and Hannah Rae Roth doi:10.1038/nclimate1383 Certification criteria for sustainable building materials need to be rationalized to avoid confusion in the marketplace. Full Text | PDF Snapshots Top Taking a glacier's pulse p65 Zoë Corbyn doi:10.1038/nclimate1379 Full Text | PDF Roadmap for climate treaty p66 Jeff Tollefson doi:10.1038/nclimate1394 Full Text | PDF Books and Arts Top End of an era pp67 - 68 doi:10.1038/nclimate1391 Full Text | PDF On our bookshelf p67 doi:10.1038/nclimate1400 Full Text | PDF Interview Top Mindful of energy pp69 - 70 doi:10.1038/nclimate1397 University of Colorado energy-use researcher Karen Ehrhardt-Martinez, who in June 2011 became director of the Climate, Mind and Behavior Program at the Garrison Institute in New York, believes that society can cut its energy use by up to 30% through behavioural changes alone. She talks to Nature Climate Change. Full Text | PDF Policy Watch Top Taking charge of mitigation pp71 - 72 Sonja van Renssen doi:10.1038/nclimate1380 Developing countries can reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions through voluntary actions, but they need the full support of developed nations, says Sonja van Renssen. Full Text | PDF Market Watch Top Dirty money pp72 - 73 Anna Petherick doi:10.1038/nclimate1381 For the first time, banks have been ranked by how much they facilitate global warming. Anna Petherick asks how this data should be used. Full Text | PDF Correction Top Refreshing REDD p73 doi:10.1038/nclimate1377 Full Text | PDF Research Highlights Top Agriculture: Crop losses in Taiwan | Ecology: Plants lose genetic diversity | Carbon fertilization: Underground competition | Oceanography: Canada Basin freshening | Ecology: Invasive species chill out | Oceanography: Low oxygen outlook | Atmospheric science: Aerosol choices matter | Meteorology: Shipping emissions News and Views Top Geoengineering: Hazy, cool and well fed? pp76 - 77 Michael L. Roderick and Graham D. Farquhar doi:10.1038/nclimate1395 Geoengineering that mimics volcanic activity to reflect incoming sunlight will not necessarily reduce crop yields. Full Text | PDF See also: Letter by J. Pongratz et al. Biology: Birds and butterflies in climatic debt pp77 - 78 Marcel E. Visser doi:10.1038/nclimate1387 A European-wide analysis of changing species distributions shows that butterflies outrun birds in the race to move northwards in response to climate change, but that neither group keeps up with increasing temperatures. Full Text | PDF See also: Letter by Vincent Devictor et al. Climate science: A future Colorado without hail pp78 - 79 Kevin Walsh doi:10.1038/nclimate1396 Globally speaking, thunderstorms are small, which makes their behaviour difficult to simulate with climate models. Now research that incorporates detailed storm dynamics indicates the near-elimination of hail in future simulations for Colorado. Full Text | PDF See also: Article by Kelly Mahoney et al. Socio-economic development: Carbon emissions and sustainability pp79 - 80 Tapas Mishra doi:10.1038/nclimate1399 An analysis shows that when consumption-based emissions are accounted for in a sustainable-development framework, carbon-exporting countries are systematically disadvantaged relative to carbon-importing countries. Full Text | PDF See also: Letter by Julia K. Steinberger et al. nclimate JOBS of the week Present Methane Cycle modelling Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE-France) Postdoctoral Research Associate (Ecology & Evolutionary Biology) University of Hull Present Methane Cycle modelling Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE-France) Analytical Chemist - Team Elucidate, Dept of Chemistry, CIT Cork Institute of Technology Technical Assistant Entomology / Zoology M / F Wageningen UR (University & Research centre) More Science jobs from nclimate EVENT Bioenergy-Biodiversity-Climate Change Joint Workshop: Science and Policy for a Greener Economy in the Context of Rio+20 06.-07.03.12 Sao Paulo, Brazil More science events from   Letters Top Pathways of human development and carbon emissions embodied in trade pp81 - 85 Julia K. Steinberger, J. Timmons Roberts, Glen P. Peters and Giovanni Baiocchi doi:10.1038/nclimate1371 Quality of life improves with economic growth and hence requires increasing greenhouse-gas emissions. Little is known, however, about the role of international trade. Now research shows that most socio-economic benefits are actually accruing to carbon-importing countries. It also finds that high life expectancy is compatible with low carbon emissions, but high incomes are not. Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Tapas Mishra Lack of uniform trends but increasing spatial variability in observed Indian rainfall extremes pp86 - 91 Subimal Ghosh, Debasish Das, Shih-Chieh Kao and Auroop R. Ganguly doi:10.1038/nclimate1327 Future changes in the Indian monsoon could affect millions of people, yet even the ways in which it might have changed over recent years remain uncertain. Statistical analysis indicates that during the second half of the twentieth century there were no spatially uniform changes in the frequency or intensity of heavy rainfall events over India, but there was an increase in the spatial variability of these characteristics. Full Text | PDF Effectiveness of stratospheric solar-radiation management as a function of climate sensitivity pp92 - 96 Katharine L. Ricke, Daniel J. Rowlands, William J. Ingram, David W. Keith and M. Granger Morgan doi:10.1038/nclimate1328 Perturbed-physics climate modelling experiments simulate past and future climate scenarios using a wide combination of model parameters consistent with past climate. Using such an approach, a study examines variations in the response of climate to solar-radiation management under different climate sensitivities. Full Text | PDF Tension between reducing sea-level rise and global warming through solar-radiation management pp97 - 100 P. J. Irvine, R. L. Sriver and K. Keller doi:10.1038/nclimate1351 A study finds tension between mitigating sea-level rise and reducing the rate of temperature change through solar-radiation management. The rapid warming that would occur if solar-radiation management were to be phased out is shown to depend critically on timescales, potentially committing future generations to its long-term use once started. Full Text | PDF Crop yields in a geoengineered climate pp101 - 105 J. Pongratz, D. B. Lobell, L. Cao and K. Caldeira doi:10.1038/nclimate1373 Deflection of sunlight could compensate for the warming induced by increased greenhouse gases. However, the effects of such geoengineering on food security are highly uncertain. Now research using high-carbon-dioxide, geoengineering and control climate simulations suggests that solar-radiation management in a high-carbon-dioxide world generally causes crop yields to increase. Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Michael L. Roderick et al. Microbial mediation of carbon-cycle feedbacks to climate warming pp106 - 110 Jizhong Zhou, Kai Xue, Jianping Xie, Ye Deng, Liyou Wu, Xiaoli Cheng, Shenfeng Fei, Shiping Deng, Zhili He, Joy D. Van Nostrand and Yiqi Luo doi:10.1038/nclimate1331 A study based on a long-term manipulation experiment in a grassland ecosystem describes the microbial mechanisms controlling feedbacks to carbon and nutrient cycling under warming. The findings suggest that ecosystem models should more explicitly consider microbial feedbacks to climate change. Full Text | PDF Continent-wide response of mountain vegetation to climate change pp111 - 115 Michael Gottfried, Harald Pauli, Andreas Futschik, Maia Akhalkatsi, Peter Baran?ok, José Luis Benito Alonso, Gheorghe Coldea, Jan Dick, Brigitta Erschbamer, Mar?´a Rosa Fernández Calzado, George Kazakis, Ján Kraj?i, Per Larsson, Martin Mallaun, Ottar Michelsen, Dmitry Moiseev, Pavel Moiseev, Ulf Molau, Abderrahmane Merzouki, Laszlo Nagy, George Nakhutsrishvili, Bård Pedersen, Giovanni Pelino, Mihai Puscas, Graziano Rossi, Angela Stanisci, Jean-Paul Theurillat, Marcello Tomaselli, Luis Villar, Pascal Vittoz, Ioannis Vogiatzakis and Georg Grabherr doi:10.1038/nclimate1329 Focusing on mountain plant communities across Europe, a study shows that ongoing climate change causes a gradual decline in cold-adapted species and a corresponding increase in warm-adapted species, which could be an early sign that mountain plant diversity is at risk. Full Text | PDF Coral thermal tolerance shaped by local adaptation of photosymbionts pp116 - 120 E. J. Howells, V. H. Beltran, N. W. Larsen, L. K. Bay, B. L. Willis and M. J. H. van Oppen doi:10.1038/nclimate1330 An analysis shows that the coral endosymbiont Symbiodinium—a dinoflagellate genus underpinning the ecological and evolutionary success of reef corals—can adapt to local thermal regimes, thereby shaping the fitness of coral hosts. This may explain why many corals show fidelity for single Symbiodinium types over wide thermal ranges. Full Text | PDF Differences in the climatic debts of birds and butterflies at a continental scale pp121 - 124 Vincent Devictor, Chris van Swaay, Tom Brereton, Llu?´s Brotons, Dan Chamberlain, Janne Heliölä, Sergi Herrando, Romain Julliard, Mikko Kuussaari, Åke Lindström, Ji??´ Reif, David B. Roy, Oliver Schweiger, Josef Settele, Constant?´ Stefanescu, Arco Van Strien, Chris Van Turnhout, Zden?k Vermouzek, Michiel WallisDeVries, Irma Wynhoff and Frédéric Jiguet doi:10.1038/nclimate1347 An analysis of annual variations in ecological community composition in several thousand plots distributed across Europe over two decades reveals that European birds and butterflies do not keep up with temperature increase and that climate change is resulting in rapid de-synchronization of the two groups at a continental scale. Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Marcel E. Visser Article Top Changes in hail and flood risk in high-resolution simulations over Colorado's mountains pp125 - 131 Kelly Mahoney, Michael A. Alexander, Gregory Thompson, Joseph J. Barsugli and James D. Scott doi:10.1038/nclimate1344 Global climate models cannot resolve hailstorms explicitly, so it is unclear whether a warmer climate will change hailstorm frequency and intensity. Now a study using high-resolution model simulations capable of resolving hail indicates the near-elimination of hail at the surface in future simulations for Colorado—a major centre of hailstorms in the United States. Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Kevin Walsh   Beyond Boundaries Top Scaling up water research p132 doi:10.1038/nclimate1384 Joseph Holden, director of water@leeds — an international climate and water research centre based at the University of Leeds — and colleague Dabo Guan talk to Nature Climate Change about the project. Full Text | PDF Advertisement Stay connected to Nature Climate Change on Facebook and Twitter.   Natureevents is a fully searchable, multi-disciplinary database designed to maximise exposure for events organisers. The contents of the Natureevents Directory are now live. The digital version is available here. Find the latest scientific conferences, courses, meetings and symposia on natureevents.com. 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