Nature Climate Change Contents March 2012 Volume 2 Number 3 pp 133-210

TABLE OF CONTENTS March 2012 Volume 2, Issue 3 In This Issue Editorial Correspondence Commentary News Feature Snapshots Policy Watch Market Watch Research Highlights News and Views Perspective 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 p1 doi:10.1038/nclimate1437 Full Text | PDF Editorial Top Money matters p133 doi:10.1038/nclimate1446 Soulless economics as well as corporate and personal greed constrain climate-friendly behaviour. But explaining climate change in cultural and artistic terms may soften hardened hearts. Full Text | PDF Correspondence Top What's family planning got to do with it? p134 Sarah Fisher and Karen Newman doi:10.1038/nclimate1412 Full Text | PDF Commentary Top The Alberta oil sands and climate pp134 - 136 Neil C. Swart and Andrew J. Weaver doi:10.1038/nclimate1421 The claimed economic benefits of exploiting the vast Alberta oil-sand deposits need to be weighed against the need to limit global warming caused by carbon dioxide emissions. Full Text | PDF News Feature Top Climate is culture pp137 - 140 David Buckland doi:10.1038/nclimate1420 In 2001, British artist David Buckland founded Cape Farewell to bridge a communication gap between the science of climate change and the societal shift required. He explains why we need a cultural response to climate change. Full Text | PDF Snapshots Top Peak timber p141 Nicola Jones doi:10.1038/nclimate1432 Full Text | PDF Chasing ice p142 Nicola Jones doi:10.1038/nclimate1431 Full Text | PDF Policy Watch Top The greenhouse-gas gang pp143 - 144 Sonja van Renssen doi:10.1038/nclimate1422 Carbon dioxide is not the only air pollutant to cause warming and, in the race to combat global temperature rise, policymakers are now focusing on the other culprits, as Sonja van Renssen finds out. Full Text | PDF Market Watch Top A note of caution pp144 - 145 Anna Petherick doi:10.1038/nclimate1423 Big money will soon flow from rich countries to poor ones that are particularly susceptible to the effects of climate change. Safeguarding this cash against corruption will be an exceptionally tough job, argues Anna Petherick. Full Text | PDF Research Highlights Top Ecology: Mind the tree-ring gap | Oceanography: Ocean acidification costs | Technology: Driving energy innovation | Biogeochemistry and oceanography: Aloha! | Genetics: Demise of the clones | Evolutionary ecology: Survival of the fittest | Impacts: Preserving our past | Ecology: Estimating extinction risk News and Views Top Economics: The rising costs of hurricanes pp148 - 149 Stéphane Hallegatte doi:10.1038/nclimate1427 The impact of climate change on economic losses from tropical cyclones is a major concern. New research shows that — like changes in population and assets — climate change may double global losses from hurricanes. Full Text | PDF See also: Article by Robert Mendelsohn et al. Oceanography: Centennial warming of ocean jets pp149 - 150 Richard G. Williams doi:10.1038/nclimate1393 Identification of an enhanced centennial warming trend in ocean subtropical boundary currents has important implications for our understanding of how climate change is happening. Full Text | PDF See also: Letter by Lixin Wu et al. Ecosystem services: Valuing ecosystems for climate pp151 - 152 Bruce A. Hungate and Haydee M. Hampton doi:10.1038/nclimate1398 Ecosystems regulate climate through biogeochemistry and biophysics, but current policies only recognize biogeochemical influences. A new proposal to include biophysical effects changes the climate value of ecosystems, and sets the stage to expand the suite of climate regulation services considered in global policies and carbon markets. Full Text | PDF See also: Letter by Kristina J. Anderson-Teixeira et al. Agriculture: Wheat crops feel the heat pp152 - 153 Tim Wheeler doi:10.1038/nclimate1425 Extreme heat can accelerate wheat aging — an effect that reduces crop yields and is underestimated in most crop models. Climate warming may, therefore, present even greater challenges to wheat production than current models predict. Full Text | PDF See also: Letter by David B. Lobell et al. Adaptation: Opportunities in climate change? pp153 - 154 Frank Ewert doi:10.1038/nclimate1426 Climate change threatens crop production and food security in many parts of the world. But planned adaption may turn the negative effects of climate change on agriculture into gains. Full Text | PDF Nature Climate Change JOBS of the week PhD student position in Global Environmental Measurements and Modelling Chalmers University of Technology Lecturers in Environmental Change Queen's University Faculty Position University of Colorado Postdoctoral Fellow (2 positions) The Australian National University Assistant Professor of Bioclimatology University of Montana More Science jobs from Nature Climate Change EVENT Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology in the Frame of the Knowledge-Based Economy 10.-12.04.12 Bologna, Italy More science events from Perspective Top A modular framework for management of complexity in international forest-carbon policy pp155 - 160 Elizabeth A. Law, Sebastian Thomas, Erik Meijaard, Paul J. Dargusch and Kerrie A. Wilson doi:10.1038/nclimate1376 Complex ecological and social settings make the programme on reducing emissions through avoided deforestation, forest degradation and other forestry activities in developing countries (also known as REDD) a challenging policy to design. Research shows the advantages of a modular policy framework able to distinguish, and adequately compensate, the different outcomes of any forest carbon initiative. Full Text | PDF Letters Top Enhanced warming over the global subtropical western boundary currents pp161 - 166 Lixin Wu, Wenju Cai, Liping Zhang, Hisashi Nakamura, Axel Timmermann, Terry Joyce, Michael J. McPhaden, Michael Alexander, Bo Qiu, Martin Visbeck, Ping Chang and Benjamin Giese doi:10.1038/nclimate1353 An analysis indicates that the warm, powerful currents that flow along the western edges of ocean basins warmed more than twice as quickly than the global ocean as a whole over the past century. This enhanced warming could have important effects on climate because these currents affect the air–sea exchange of heat, moisture and carbon dioxide. Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Richard G. Williams Detecting regional anthropogenic trends in ocean acidification against natural variability pp167 - 171 T. Friedrich, A. Timmermann, A. Abe-Ouchi, N. R. Bates, M. O. Chikamoto, M. J. Church, J. E. Dore, D. K. Gledhill, M. González-Dávila, M. Heinemann, T. Ilyina, J. H. Jungclaus, E. McLeod, A. Mouchet and J. M. Santana-Casiano doi:10.1038/nclimate1372 Increasing carbon dioxide emissions since the beginning of the industrial revolution have caused widespread ocean acidification and concomitant changes in ocean chemistry, with potential ramifications for major marine ecosystems. A study shows that recent trends in ocean acidification are detectable against natural variability with virtual certainty, even on regional scales. Full Text | PDF Multi-centennial tree-ring record of ENSO-related activity in New Zealand pp172 - 176 Anthony M. Fowler, Gretel Boswijk, Andrew M. Lorrey, Joelle Gergis, Maryann Pirie, Shane P. J. McCloskey, Jonathan G. Palmer and Jan Wunder doi:10.1038/nclimate1374 It is unclear how global warming will affect the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), in part because the instrumental record is too short to understand how ENSO has changed in the past. Now a 700-year-long tree-ring record indicates that ENSO-related climate variability may increase in New Zealand with continued warming. Full Text | PDF Climate-regulation services of natural and agricultural ecoregions of the Americas pp177 - 181 Kristina J. Anderson-Teixeira, Peter K. Snyder, Tracy E. Twine, Santiago V. Cuadra, Marcos H. Costa and Evan H. DeLucia doi:10.1038/nclimate1346 This study combines previous work on quantifying the greenhouse gas value of ecosystems with models of the effects of biophysical processes to produce an integrated metric of climate-regulation services. The approach is used to quantify climate-regulation values of natural and managed ecosystems across the Western Hemisphere. Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Bruce A. Hungate et al. Estimated carbon dioxide emissions from tropical deforestation improved by carbon-density maps pp182 - 185 A. Baccini, S. J. Goetz, W. S. Walker, N. T. Laporte, M. Sun, D. Sulla-Menashe, J. Hackler, P. S. A. Beck, R. Dubayah, M. A. Friedl, S. Samanta and R. A. Houghton doi:10.1038/nclimate1354 Deforestation contributes 6–17% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. However, much uncertainty in the calculation of deforestation emissions stems from the inadequacy of forest carbon-density and deforestation data. Now an analysis provides the most-detailed estimate so far of the carbon density of vegetation and the associated carbon dioxide emissions from deforestation for ecosystems across the tropics. Full Text | PDF Extreme heat effects on wheat senescence in India pp186 - 189 David B. Lobell, Adam Sibley and J. Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio doi:10.1038/nclimate1356 One difficulty in anticipating the effects of climate change on agriculture is accounting for crop responses to extremely high temperatures. Now a remote-sensing study demonstrates accelerated ageing of wheat in northern India in response to extreme heat (>34 °C); an effect that reduces crop yields but is underestimated in most crop models. Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Tim Wheeler Constructed wetlands as biofuel production systems pp190 - 194 Dong Liu, Xu Wu, Jie Chang, Baojing Gu, Yong Min, Ying Ge, Yan Shi, Hui Xue, Changhui Peng and Jianguo Wu doi:10.1038/nclimate1370 A study advocates the efficient production of cellulosic biofuel using waste nitrogen through wastewater treatment with constructed wetlands in China. The analysis suggests that the net life-cycle energy output of constructed wetlands is higher than many other biofuel production systems. Full Text | PDF Climate impacts on bird and plant communities from altered animal–plant interactions pp195 - 200 Thomas E. Martin and John L. Maron doi:10.1038/nclimate1348 A long-term field study establishes a link between reduced snowfall and bird and tree declines in montane Arizona. Excluding elk from experimental sites reversed these declines and also lowered nest predation. This experiment shows that climate change, operating through increased winter herbivory, can negatively affect diverse species occupying such ecosystems. Full Text | PDF Near-future carbon dioxide levels alter fish behaviour by interfering with neurotransmitter function pp201 - 204 Göran E. Nilsson, Danielle L. Dixson, Paolo Domenici, Mark I. McCormick, Christina Sørensen, Sue-Ann Watson and Philip L. Munday doi:10.1038/nclimate1352 A study of two species of coral reef fish demonstrates that the anticipated increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide directly interferes with neurotransmitter function in their larvae, a hitherto unrecognized problem for marine fishes. Full Text | PDF Article Top The impact of climate change on global tropical cyclone damage pp205 - 209 Robert Mendelsohn, Kerry Emanuel, Shun Chonabayashi and Laura Bakkensen doi:10.1038/nclimate1357 Greenhouse-gas emissions are likely to have an impact on the damage caused by extreme weather events, such as tropical cyclones. A study predicts that climate change will increase the frequency of these high-intensity storms in selected ocean basins and double their economic damage. Almost all tropical cyclone damage tends to be concentrated in North America, East Asia and the Caribbean-Central American region. Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Stéphane Hallegatte Beyond Boundaries Top Modelling for policy p210 doi:10.1038/nclimate1428 Environmental economist Jonah Busch worked with a team of economists, geographers and policy specialists to assess different incentive structures for reducing emissions from deforestation in Indonesia. Full Text | PDF Advertisement Microbes in thawing permafrost: the unknown variable in the climate change equation FREE David E Graham et al The ISME Journal ¦ doi:10.1038/ismej.2011.163 Considering that 25% of Earth's terrestrial surface is underlain by permafrost, our understanding of the diversity of microbial life in this extreme habitat is surprisingly limited. Take a look at this article from The ISME Journal and find out about the unknown variable in the climate change equation.   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. For event advertising opportunities across the Nature Publishing Group portfolio please contact natureevents@nature.com More Nature Events

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