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    <title>Recent paper recommendations for Nature Reports: Climate Change</title>
    <description>The latest recommended papers from Nature Reports: Climate Change</description>
    <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/papers</link>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <ttl>40</ttl>
    <item>
      <title>A large discontinuity in the mid-twentieth century in observed global-mean surface temperature</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[The blogs RealClimate, Prometheus and Climate Audit have been arguing over this paper, which finds flaws in WWII temperature records. Quirin Schiermeier offers his take on NRCC's Climate Feedback blog: http://blogs.nature.com/climatefeedback/2008/05/postworld_war_ii_cooling_a_mir_1.html]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:57:16 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/394</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/394</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Increasing risk of Amazonian drought due to decreasing aerosol pollution</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[Here's an example of irony unleashed when atmospheric aerosols are incorporated into climate models to improve their precision. Cox et al. find that adding in pollution particles makes for unusually accurate simulations of recent climatic conditions affecting the Amazon - and they use these simulations to predict that cleaner air in future will mean more frequent droughts for the rainforest. Quirin Sciermeier has more to say about this on the Climate Feedback blog: http://blogs.nature.com/climatefeedback/]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 08 May 2008 16:17:57 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/380</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/380</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Satellite measurements of the clear-sky greenhouse effect from tropospheric ozone</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[This paper offers an observation-based estimate of the radiative forcing caused by tropospheric ozone - a greenhouse gas whose impact was previously judged from models alone. Ozone is one of several lesser-known greenhouse gases that seem to be getting more attention these days. I blogged about the finding here: http://blogs.nature.com/climatefeedback/2008/04/in_the_ozone.html]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:10:39 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/376</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/376</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Stream denitrification across biomes and its response to anthropogenic nitrate loading</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[In a Nature News & Views article that we've reprinted this month (http://www.nature.com/climate/2008/0804/full/452162a.html), Sybil Seitzinger explains how this 'study of unparalleled scale' replaces a muddy mix of data on the ability of river sediment bacteria to convert nitrate pollutants into nitrogen gas and the the greenhouse gas N2O. It turns out that the more nitrates we load into rivers, the worse they sponge it up. ]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:41:04 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/354</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/354</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Impact of Artificial Reservoir Water Impoundment on Global Sea Level</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[I wrote up this paper - the first detailed tally of water locked up behind dams during the 20th century, with some surprising implications for global sea level rise - as a Research Highlight in NRCC this week (http://www.nature.com/climate/2008/0804/full/climate.2008.27.html). 

The lead author told me that the IPCC already was not quite able to account for observed sea level rise in terms of thermal expansion of warming surface water, ice melt, and other known sources of increasing ocean volume. Adding up these sources still left a slight gap in the budget. Now, with the finding that damming has prevented 3 cm of rise, the gap is even larger. Something must have made up for the water removed into reservoirs  - but what? 

And on another note, what do you make of the way the sea level rise flattens to a constant rate for the last 80 years when the stored water is added back?

]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:44:41 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/333</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/333</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Influence of the Gulf Stream on the troposphere</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[The Gulf Stream not only blows warm air across the surface of the Atlantic toward Europe, but reaches upward through the entire troposphere, according to the new data and modelling here (recapped on the Climate Feedback blog, http://blogs.nature.com/climatefeedback/2008/03/gulf_stream_revisited.html, and in an editorial summary, http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v452/n7184/covers/). 

An interesting, though still speculative, implication is that atmospheric waves emanating from this tall column of wind and weather might link the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation with climatic effects throughout the Northern Hemisphere. What could this mean for feedbacks between climate change and ocean circulation?]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:28:32 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/302</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/302</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>On the causal link between carbon dioxide and air pollution mortality</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[Despite the manifold harm it does as a greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide is not considered a classic air pollutant because it doesn't affect human respiration directly. Noting that increasing levels of CO2 cause temperature and water vapor content to rise, Jacobson uses photochemistry to determine that these factors independently feed back to increase ground-level ozone concentrations. This can harm lung function and irritate the respiratory system. He calculates that this could cause 22,000 excess deaths worldwide each year.]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:00:10 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/290</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/290</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Millennial- and orbital-scale changes in the East Asian monsoon over the past 224,000&#8201;years</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[This week's Nature has a high-resolution, absolute-dated record of the strength of the East Asian monsoon, authored by Wang et al. The record, taken from cave deposits, stretches back for 224,000 years, and may serve as a benchmark for correlating other climate records.

Jonathan Overpeck and Julia Cole look at this article in a News & Views piece for Nature, which we've reprinted here: http://www.nature.com/climate/2008/0803/full/4511061a.html]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:54:45 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/289</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/289</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Emissions from Photovoltaic Life Cycles</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[Manufacturing the latest solar cells produces far less greenhouse gases and other pollutants than conventional fossil fuels, finds this life-cycle assessment by Fthenakis et al. This means that "at least 89% of air emissions associated with electricity generation could be prevented if electricity from photovoltaics displaces electricity from the grid," they say. ]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:17:20 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/280</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/280</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Significant contribution of the 18.6 year tidal cycle to regional coastal changes</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[Which is more likely to radically reshape shorelines - global sea level rise or regional  cycles? Gratiot et al. find that the impact of 18.6-year natural tidal cycles on the Guyanas coastline in South America dominate the effects of global sea levels. ]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:47:33 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/274</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/274</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>High-Throughput Synthesis of Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks and Application to CO2 Capture</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[Banerjee et al. have created metal-organic 'micro-sponges' that can soak up carbon dioxide and might be useful in carbon capture and storage. The sponges are crystalline materials in which organic molecules hold together a framework of metal atoms. Twenty-five types of crystals that work for soaking up carbon were discovered in a screen of thousands of combinatorial possibilities, in a process analogous to drug design. 
]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:05:20 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/268</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/268</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Tipping elements in the Earth's climate system</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[Lenton et al. review the dangers posed by nine climate 'tipping elements' - large-scale components in the earth's climate system that may pass a tipping point where small perturbations lead to qualitative changes. They've tried to capture cutting-edge thinking by supplementing the published literature with expert opinions elicited at a recent meeting on tipping points. ]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:33:57 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/261</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/261</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Mass and volume transport variability in an eddy-filled ocean</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[True changes in the North Atlantic ocean circulation due to climate change are nearly impossible to identify, according to Wunsch et al. This is due to the background variability caused by naturally occurring eddies. The findings imply that measurements in three dimensions over several decades would be necessary to determine whether climate change has affected the ocean's circulation.]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:18:44 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/260</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/260</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Bacterial carbon processing by generalist species in the coastal ocean</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[Mou et al. examine how marine bacteria contribute to the ocean's carbon cycle using an experimental metagenomics approach. This allows them to analyze metabolic capabilities throughout the community of bacteria, rather than characterizing individual taxa. ]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 07 Feb 2008 16:32:31 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/255</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/255</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Sea level rise projections for current generation CGCMs based on the semi-empirical method</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[Here Horton et al. use a new prediction method to drastically revise the IPCC's estimate of global sea level rise by 2100, from 18-59 cm to 54-89 cm.  Continuing ice loss in Greenland and West Antarctica could push the predicted rise even higher. ]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:51:28 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/249</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/249</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Mechanical gas capture and release in a network solid via multiple single-crystalline transformations</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[This proof-of-concept paper highlights a breakthrough in nanotechnology that could allow carbon dioxide emissions to be captured and sealed off by 'molecular nanovalves' - allowing high-density storage without the use of high-pressure tanks. ]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:36:12 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/248</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/248</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Large contribution of sea surface warming to recent increase in Atlantic hurricane activity</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[In this Nature paper, Saunders and Lea quantify the observed relationship between rising sea surface temperatures and North Atlantic hurricane activity, finding that "a 0.5 °C increase in sea surface temperature is associated with a approximately 40% increase in hurricane frequency and activity." 

Nature News has a Briefing explaining the paper at http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080130/full/news.2008.544.html#comments

This is one of three new papers on sea surface temperature and hurricanes that we're featuring in the Journal Club this week. Taken together, what do you think these papers have to say?]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:13:38 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/241</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/241</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Regional model simulation of North Atlantic cyclones: Present climate and idealized response to increased sea surface temperature</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[Semmler et al.'s modelling study predicts increased numbers and intensities of North Atlantic hurricanes in response to a 1-degree rise in sea surface temperature. 

This is one of three new papers on sea surface temperature and hurricanes that we're featuring in the Journal Club this week. Taken together, what do you think these papers have to say?]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:06:56 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/240</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/240</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Human contribution to rapidly increasing frequency of very warm Northern Hemisphere summers</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[In the last 20-40 years, extremely hot summers - such as the 2003 heatwave that killed an estimated 30,000 Europeans - have become more frequent in regions across the Northern Hemisphere, Jones et al. point out. Comparing observed Northern Hemisphere temperatures to the predictions of climate models with or without anthropogenic contributions, they conclude that humans have been the dominant cause. Unsurprisingly, the models indicate that we can expect even more scorching summers in the future. ]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:45:20 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/238</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/238</guid>
      <dc:creator>Olive Heffernan</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Global warming and United States landfalling hurricanes</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[Focusing on the relationship between sea surface temperature and vertical wind shear, this paper by Wang and Lee "uses observational data to demonstrate that the attribution of the recent increase in Atlantic hurricane activity to global warming is premature and that global warming may decrease the likelihood of hurricanes making landfall in the United States." 

This is one of three new papers on sea surface temperature and hurricanes that we're featuring in the Journal Club this week. Taken together, what do you think these papers have to say?]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:43:58 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/237</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/237</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Anthropogenically enhanced fluxes of water and carbon from the Mississippi River</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[Here Peter Raymond et al. examine carbon export by the Mississippi River in the form of inorganic carbon, the byproduct of natural rock-weathering processes that consume atmospheric carbon dioxide. Analyzing century-long records from the water-treatment plants of New Orleans, they find that shifting agricultural practices have had a greater impact than climate change on this carbon flux.

Emilio Mayagora discussed the paper in a News and Views article (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v451/n7177/full/451405a.html), which we reprinted in this month's Nature Reports Climate Change (http://www.nature.com/climate/2008/0802/full/451405a.html). ]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:11:03 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/234</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/234</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Disequilibrium response of permafrost thaw to climate warming in Canada over 1850&#8211;2100</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[Thawing of permafrost in the Arctic tundra owing to global warming could affect "hydrology, ecosystems, soil biogeochemistry and the stability of buildings and infrastructure in high latitudes", Zhang et al. point out. Here they model permafrost thawing in a simulation that reaches deep underground, beyond the rapidly warming surface. ]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:41:59 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/228</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/228</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Spatial Pattern and Mechanisms of Heat Content Change in the North Atlantic</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[Uneven warming of the North Atlantic Ocean during the last half-century may be caused by changes in the natural climate system, concludes a new analysis by Susan Lozier and co-workers. Since the observed variations in regional heat gain and loss are great enough to mask an underlying greenhouse warming trend, the authors warn it is too early to know whether the changes in heat content are partly due to anthropogenic climate change. A Research Highlight summarizing this paper will appear next week on the Nature Reports Climate Change site. ]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:23:06 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/224</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/224</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Vertical structure of recent Arctic warming</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[Rune Graversen and colleagues use statistical analyses to try and understand what processes are important in the recent warming of the Arctic. One of their findings is that a substantial part of the warming is seen at altitude, rather that at the surface - and that means ice-albedo feedbacks can't be as important as previously suggested. This suprising result was picked up in several news stories, some of which may have described it a bit misleadingly, as Oliver Morton discussed on the Climate Feedback blog: http://blogs.nature.com/climatefeedback/2008/01/arctic_amplification_1.html]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:14:06 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/223</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/223</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Net carbon dioxide losses of northern ecosystems in response to autumn warming</title>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[Spring and autumn temperatures at northern latitudes are increasing, leading to longer growing seasons, but this doesn't necessarily mean that the growing plants can sequester more atmospheric carbon. In fact, Shilong Piao, Philippe Ciais an colleagues find here that warming in autumn makes plants release more carbon than they take up. John Miller discussed the paper in a News and Views piece in the same issue of Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v451/n7174/full/451026a.html]]>
      </description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:06:25 -0000</pubDate>
      <link>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/222</link>
      <guid>http://spotlight.nature.com/climate/paper/222</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anna Barnett</dc:creator>
    </item>
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