Mediterranean woodlands persisted in coastal Lebanon for hundreds of millennia, supporting diverse ungulates and shaping distinct hominin foraging strategies, highlighting ecological contrasts with the southern Levant, as indicated by dating, faunal analysis, dental wear, and landscape modeling

Pollen, charcoal, and biomarkers from the 90-million-year-old peatland sediments in Antarctica reveal that fire dynamics in the earliest peatlands of the warm, CO₂-rich Cretaceous world closely resembled those of modern ecosystems.

Three of Antarctica’s largest emperor penguin colonies were monitored year-round from 2017–2024, overcoming historical winter observation limitations and demonstrating lower winter than summer movement, according to Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar data combined with optical imagery.

Active-layer thickness increased at 55% and 38% of Arctic and Antarctic sites, and >90% in European, Asian, and South American mountains, driven by increasing thawing degree-days and rainfall, according to analysis of field data from 156 permafrost monitoring sites (2000–2024).

High-latitude North Atlantic chlorophyll blooms enhance moisture across Europe by absorbing shortwave radiation, rising sea surface temperature, and altering atmospheric circulation, thereby influencing terrestrial primary productivity, as revealed by observations and Earth system model experiments.

Abundant and rare soil bacteria in Chinese grasslands show contrasting trophic strategies, assembly processes, and functions that underpin bacterial biodiversity, with rare taxa more environmentally sensitive and soil pH regulating both groups, based on analyses of 278 samples and machine learning.

Faults in aquifers can influence groundwater recovery and land movement by restricting flow, leading to uneven uplift and recovery across nearby areas, according to remote sensing and multi-decadal groundwater observational analysis.

Sauropodomorph-bearing assemblages from the Khorat Plateau, Thailand, begin at least 20 million years later than previously believed, with subsequent faunal turnover paralleling that observed in Laurasia and Gondwana, according to detrital zircon U–Pb dating.

More than one third of global forest loss is embodied in international demand, with urbanization and manufacturing emerging as key predictors, according to a study that combined satellite observations with trade modeling and machine learning.

Beneath the deep ocean floor may not seem like a natural place for a prospering ecosystem, yet microbial life can thrive in subsurface sediments. The International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 385 led by Drs. A. Teske and D. Lizarralde set out to drill and sample the deep biosphere, at eight sites of the Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California. Dr Edgcomb and colleagues analysed these data and found active microbial life across a range of sediment and temperature conditions, especially around hydrothermal structures. Their work demonstrates that subsurface microbial life can flourish, even in the most challenging of conditions.

Heat stress risk is increasingly assessed using composite indices that were derived for narrowly defined applications and then extrapolated far beyond those use cases. This Comment argues that users must understand each index’s origins and be transparent about the sometimes-significant limitations these impose on its application.

Urban decarbonisation depends on materials such as aluminium, graphite and lithium. This Comment argues that disruptions to their supply pose a neglected climate risk and calls for a strategic reserve system to protect cities’ energy transitions.

A Just Transition to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement has been recognised as a global aim for climate governance, yet it has so far lacked a binding implementation mechanism. This Comment proposes three design features for the 2026 operationalisation negotiations to break the procedural lock-in.

Fire-conditioned degradation now rivals deforestation as an independent source of carbon loss across Amazonia. This Comment argues that fire and degradation are first-order risks to Nature-based solutions and must be embedded explicitly in monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV), as well as crediting and jurisdictional finance.

The twentieth century saw a rapid expansion in Arctic tundra vegetation. Dr Ingrosso and colleagues examined these changes over time by using plant-derived biomarkers (biopolymers from plant leaves and cell walls) from a sediment core in Svalbard. They found that Svalbard’s greening was driven by a decline of summer sea ice and glacier retreat, and that the expansion was associated with vascular plant species that are adapted to warmer conditions. These interactions could shape the future Arctic environment in the face of ongoing climate change.