Circumpolar Deep Water is increasing in thickness towards Antarctica in the upper 2000 m of the Southern Ocean, according to analyses of ship-based observations combined with machine learning modelling applied to Argo float data.

Global research prioritization for peatland science engaged 467 participants from 54 countries, identifying 50 priority research questions across carbon dynamics, climate impacts, restoration and management, technological innovation, and community and policy engagement.

Alkalinity enhancement through tile-based local pH modulation can improve early coral recruit survivorship, as shown in laboratory-fabricated artificial reef structures made by mixing sodium bicarbonate or sodium carbonate into cement

Developments in generative Artificial Intelligence and society’s perception of its safety shape four distinct scenarios of genAI use, from fast adoption to public backlash, that will shape socio-political challenges for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Seagrass paleobiogeography closely tracked long-term climate warming, with warmer epochs enabling poleward expansion consistent with niche conservatism, based on latitudinal analyses of seagrass fossil distributions across paleoclimate belts.

Insect airborne communication, especially sex pheromone signaling, is vulnerable to anthropogenic air pollution, according to an integrated model of gas phase oxidation and gas-to-aerosol partitioning.

Sustained ocean oxygenation from 1.4–1.3 Ga, rather than transient pulses, may have facilitated early eukaryotic evolution, according to molybdenum isotope values and redox proxies from ca. 1.33 Ga North China shales.

Biochar-biofilm carrying Arthrobacter  D2 reduced antimicrobial resistance genes and virulence factors in less fertile Ultisol, whereas more fertile Mollisol showed community resilience, based on DNA-stable isotope probing of soil samples

Marine heatwaves induce significant changes in the community composition of kelp forests, including loss of understory kelp and shifts towards subtropical/introduced species, according to analyses of temperature data and ecological transects from southern California.

Global grassland fragmentation has left only ~24% of grasslands intact by 2020, with contrasting biodiversity effects and conservation outperforming restoration in 61% of ecoregions, based on global fragmentation mapping, vertebrate richness analyses, and land-use scenario projections.

Generative artificial intelligence has unsettled higher education, raising fears that students will lose the ability to think. Drawing on classroom experience and student feedback, we argue that grounded inquiry sharpens judgement in Earth science teaching by limiting AI to set sources and auditing its claims.

War can have wide-ranging environmental impacts, including on agricultural production. Professors Gong and Lin and colleagues analysed satellite imagery over agricultural areas in five provinces of eastern Ukraine from 2019-2022. They found that production of wheat, sunflower, and rapeseed in these regions has declined by more than thirty percent in the subsequent growing season since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war. This work demonstrates the devastating impact that war can have upon agriculture and therefore food security worldwide.

The Earth’s climate is regulated and stabilised by interconnected ecosystem processes. This Comment argues that following on from COP30, nature-based indicators should be integrated into formal climate policy processes—such as the Global Stocktake and Nationally Determined Contributions—to strengthen the coherence between climate governance and Earth System stability.

Adoption of the International Maritime Organisation’s Net Zero Framework was postponed by one year, to October 2026. This Comment argues that this time window must be used to address four outstanding challenges, and that success can turn the maritime sector into a model for achieving the Paris climate goals.

Fluctuations in the Earth’s magnetic field across time may have had wide-ranging impacts on ecosystems. Dr Tarduno and colleagues used paleomagnetic data from silicate crystals to examine the Ediacaran period. Crystal data indicated that Earth’s magnetic field had decreased in intensity, becoming 10 to 30 times weaker than the present day. This profound and unprecedented reduction in magnetic field intensity aligned with a diversification in macroscopic animals, suggesting that changes in Earth’s magnetic shielding contributed to Earth’s oxygenation and therefore supported faunal diversification.

Freshwater ecosystems produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and ponds on agricultural land are particularly strong emitters. Dr Malerba and colleagues used maps of agricultural ponds and compiled data on their emissions to produce assessments of methane emissions from agricultural ponds for both the USA and Australia. They found emissions twice as high as were initially being accounted for under national inventories, highlighting the need to account for this source in national inventories.