Nature Climate Change Contents August 2015 Volume 5 Number 8 pp 703-786

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TABLE OF CONTENTS August 2015 Volume 5, Issue 8 Editorial Correspondence Commentaries News Feature Research Highlights News and Views Perspectives Review Letters Article Corrigendum Subscribe   Facebook   RSS   Recommend to library   Twitter       Editorial Top A year of action p703 doi:10.1038/nclimate2752 This year is make or break for climate and a sustainable future. The opportunity to make genuine progress on these grand societal challenges must not be squandered. Correspondence Top Validity of county-level estimates of climate change beliefs p704 Lawrence C. Hamilton, Joel Hartter and Thomas G. Safford doi:10.1038/nclimate2720 Improved modelling of soil nitrogen losses pp705 - 706 Qing Zhu and William J. Riley doi:10.1038/nclimate2696 Commentaries Top Expertise and policy-making in disaster risk reduction pp706 - 707 Colin Walch doi:10.1038/nclimate2680 The third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction ended with an agreement lacking ambition. The conference showed that better communication between the scientific community and decision-makers is needed to develop informed frameworks. Sendai targets at risk pp707 - 709 Susan L. Cutter and Melanie Gall doi:10.1038/nclimate2718 How can we measure disaster loss reduction in the absence of reliable loss data on the economic and human impacts? Existing loss accounting systems vastly underestimate the true burden of disasters, both nationally and globally. Development incentives for fossil fuel subsidy reform pp709 - 712 Michael Jakob, Claudine Chen, Sabine Fuss, Annika Marxen and Ottmar Edenhofer doi:10.1038/nclimate2679 Reforming fossil fuel subsidies could free up enough funds to finance universal access to water, sanitation, and electricity in many countries, as well as helping to cut global greenhouse-gas emissions. Usefulness and limitations of global flood risk models pp712 - 715 Philip J. Ward, Brenden Jongman, Peter Salamon, Alanna Simpson, Paul Bates, Tom De Groeve, Sanne Muis, Erin Coughlan de Perez, Roberto Rudari, Mark A. Trigg and Hessel C. Winsemius doi:10.1038/nclimate2742 Global flood risk models were developed to identify risk hotspots in a world with increasing flood occurrence. Here we assess the ability and limitations of the current models and suggest what is needed moving forward. News Feature Top Fat is an environmentalist issue pp716 - 717 Elisabeth Jeffries doi:10.1038/nclimate2738 Health impacts have been excluded from assessments of palm oil production but they could alter governments' view of the industry. Research Highlights Top Forest ecology: Firing photosynthesis | Viticulture: Grapevines under stress | Climate impacts: Shifting sands | Public opinion: Aggrieved China News and Views Top Politics: Echo chambers and false certainty pp719 - 720 Justin Farrell doi:10.1038/nclimate2732 Climate change continues to be a controversial issue among political elites in the US. New research shows how ideological views become entrenched through 'echo chambers'. See also: Article by Lorien Jasny et al. Hydrology: Climate change comes to the Sahel pp720 - 721 Alessandra Giannini doi:10.1038/nclimate2739 Persistent drought in the Sahel in the 1970s and 1980s was caused by subtle changes in global sea surface temperatures. Now model results show that the direct effect of increasing greenhouse-gas concentrations led to the subsequent recovery. See also: Letter by Buwen Dong et al. Biological oceanography: The CO2 switch in diatoms pp722 - 723 Jodi N. Young and François M. M. Morel doi:10.1038/nclimate2691 Diatoms are important primary producers in the ocean, however their response to rising CO2 is uncertain. Now research shows how diatoms regulate their metabolism in response to changing CO2. See also: Letter by Gwenn M. M. Hennon et al. Arctic permafrost: Microbial lid on subsea methane pp723 - 724 Brett F. Thornton and Patrick Crill doi:10.1038/nclimate2740 Submarine permafrost thaw in the Arctic has been suggested as a trigger for the release of large quantities of methane to the water column, and subsequently the atmosphere — with important implications for global warming. Now research shows that microbial oxidation of methane at the thaw front can effectively prevent its release. JOBS of the week Postdoctoral Research Associate University of Liverpool Postdoctoral Research Assistant University of Dundee Tenure-Track Faculty Position University of Cambridge PhD-position (4 years) in Cancer Genetics / Genomics University of Bergen More Science jobs from EVENT The International Society for Ecological Modelling Global Conference 2016 08.05.16 Baltimore, USA More science events from Advertisement Nature Communications is now fully open access All new submissions if accepted, will be published open access and an article processing charge will apply. For more information visit the website. Visit our open access funding page or contact openaccess@nature.com to learn more on APC funding.   Perspectives Top Attribution of climate extreme events pp725 - 730 Kevin E. Trenberth, John T. Fasullo and Theodore G. Shepherd doi:10.1038/nclimate2657 There is a tremendous desire to attribute causes to weather and climate events that is often challenging from a physical standpoint. Headlines attributing an event solely to either human-induced climate change or natural variability can be misleading when both are invariably in play. The conventional attribution framework struggles with dynamically driven extremes because of the small signal-to-noise ratios and often uncertain nature of the forced changes. Here, we suggest that a different framing is desirable, which asks why such extremes unfold the way they do. Specifically, we suggest that it is more useful to regard the extreme circulation regime or weather event as being largely unaffected by climate change, and question whether known changes in the climate system's thermodynamic state affected the impact of the particular event. Some examples briefly illustrated include 'snowmaggedon' in February 2010, superstorm Sandy in October 2012 and supertyphoon Haiyan in November 2013, and, in more detail, the Boulder floods of September 2013, all of which were influenced by high sea surface temperatures that had a discernible human component. From local perception to global perspective pp731 - 734 Flavio Lehner and Thomas F. Stocker doi:10.1038/nclimate2660 Local weather influences perception of climate change. Although weather is not representative of climate, this study shows that the percentage of the population experiencing higher temperatures has increased, in line with climate model projections. Review Top Evaluation of CMIP5 palaeo-simulations to improve climate projections pp735 - 743 S. P. Harrison, P. J. Bartlein, K. Izumi, G. Li, J. Annan, J. Hargreaves, P. Braconnot and M. Kageyama doi:10.1038/nclimate2649 Understanding past climate should help reduce uncertainties in projections of future climate. This Review of palaeosimulation evaluations suggests that existing models capture broad patterns of climate change, but that further improvement is needed. Letters Top Explaining topic prevalence in answers to open-ended survey questions about climate change pp744 - 747 Endre Tvinnereim and Kjersti Fløttum doi:10.1038/nclimate2663 Automated text analysis shows that Norwegians emphasize themes around weather and ice, the future, consumption and attribution when responding to survey questions about climate change, with greater concern for societal aspects than UK or US citizens. Impacts of climate change on electric power supply in the Western United States pp748 - 752 Matthew D. Bartos and Mikhail V. Chester doi:10.1038/nclimate2648 Power providers do not account for climate change in their development plans. But 46% of power stations in the western United States are vulnerable to long-term changes in streamflow, air temperature, water temperature, humidity and air density. Tension between scientific certainty and meaning complicates communication of IPCC reports pp753 - 756 G. J. S. Hollin and W. Pearce doi:10.1038/nclimate2672 Analysis of an IPCC press conference shows that certain terms hold different meanings for scientific and public audiences, highlighting the difficulty of balancing scientific credibility with public dialogue. Dominant role of greenhouse-gas forcing in the recovery of Sahel rainfall pp757 - 760 Buwen Dong and Rowan Sutton doi:10.1038/nclimate2664 Higher atmospheric greenhouse gases are shown to have driven the recovery of Sahelian rainfall since the 1980s. This study discounts the role of sea surface temperature changes that had previously been jointly credited as drivers of the recovery. See also: News and Views by Alessandra Giannini Diatom acclimation to elevated CO2 via cAMP signalling and coordinated gene expression pp761 - 765 Gwenn M. M. Hennon, Justin Ashworth, Ryan D. Groussman, Chris Berthiaume, Rhonda L. Morales, Nitin S. Baliga, Mónica V. Orellana and E. V. Armbrust doi:10.1038/nclimate2683 Carbon fixation by marine diatoms, which dominate ocean primary productivity, is energetically expensive. Now genetic analysis shows that elevated CO2 causes downregulation of these mechanisms, resulting in metabolic rearrangement and energy savings. See also: News and Views by Jodi N. Young et al. Effects of climate change and seed dispersal on airborne ragweed pollen loads in Europe pp766 - 771 Lynda Hamaoui-Laguel, Robert Vautard, Li Liu, Fabien Solmon, Nicolas Viovy, Dmitry Khvorostyanov, Franz Essl, Isabelle Chuine, Augustin Colette, Mikhail A. Semenov, Alice Schaffhauser, Jonathan Storkey, Michel Thibaudon and Michelle M. Epstein doi:10.1038/nclimate2652 Common ragweed is an invasive plant in Europe, and many people are allergic to its pollen. Modelling results indicate that airborne pollen concentrations are likely to increase in Europe over coming decades, at least in part owing to climate change. Global mountain topography and the fate of montane species under climate change pp772 - 776 Paul R. Elsen and Morgan W. Tingley doi:10.1038/nclimate2656 Surface area does not decrease monotonically with elevation for two-thirds of mountain ranges. Consequently many mountain species might not experience reduced habitat area as they move upslope under climate change. Coral bleaching under unconventional scenarios of climate warming and ocean acidification pp777 - 781 Lester Kwiatkowski, Peter Cox, Paul R. Halloran, Peter J. Mumby and Andy J. Wiltshire doi:10.1038/nclimate2655 Widespread severe coral bleaching and degradation is projected to occur by 2050 due to global warming. But the risk of global bleaching could be reduced through climate engineering using stratospheric aerosol-based solar radiation management. Article Top An empirical examination of echo chambers in US climate policy networks pp782 - 786 Lorien Jasny, Joseph Waggle and Dana R. Fisher doi:10.1038/nclimate2666 Empirical analysis of climate change debates in the US Congress shows that policymakers are most likely to seek out experts confirming their existing views. That information then gets disseminated among like-minded individuals in 'echo chambers'. See also: News and Views by Justin Farrell   Corrigendum Top Corrigendum: Options for managing impacts of climate change on a deep-sea community p786 Ronald E. Thresher, John M. Guinotte, Richard J. Matear and Alistair J. Hobday doi:10.1038/nclimate2733 See also: Perspective by Ronald E. Thresher et al. 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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