User-recommended papers allows you to suggest a paper you would like to see on Climate Change. When these papers appear on our site, users may comment and vote on them. To recommend a paper please use this form. Please note that you cannot recommend a paper you have authored. The editors will reject any self-recommendations. All comments and recommendation are checked by the editors and may be edited prior to publication on the site.

  • Anthropogenic change

    • Increasing risk of Amazonian drought due to decreasing aerosol pollution

      • Peter M. Cox, Phil P. Harris, Chris Huntingford, Richard A. Betts, Matthew Collins, Chris D. Jones, Tim E. Jupp, José A. Marengo, Carlos A. Nobre
        Original article citation: Nature 453," 212 - 215, (2008).

      • Categories: Anthropogenic change, Regional Climate, and Climate Prediction
      • Recommended by the Editor: Anna Barnett on 05/08/2008 04:17PM GMT

        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/
      • Comment on this subject: 0 comments made

    • Stream denitrification across biomes and its response to anthropogenic nitrate loading

      • Patrick J. Mulholland, Ashley M. Helton, Geoffrey C. Poole, Robert O. Hall, Stephen K. Hamilton, Bruce J. Peterson, Jennifer L. Tank, Linda R. Ashkenas, Lee W. Cooper, Clifford N. Dahm, Walter K. Dodds, Stuart E. G. Findlay, Stanley V. Gregory, Nancy B. Grimm, Sherri L. Johnson, William H. McDowell, Judy L. Meyer, H. Maurice Valett, Jackson R. Webster, Clay P. Arango, Jake J. Beaulieu, Melody J. Bernot, Amy J. Burgin, Chelsea L. Crenshaw, Laura T. Johnson, B. R. Niederlehner, Jonathan M. O’Brien, Jody D. Potter, Richard W. Sheibley, Daniel J. Sobota, Suzanne M. Thomas
        Original article citation: Nature 452," 202 - 205, (2008).

      • Categories: Anthropogenic change and Earth Sciences
      • Recommended by the Editor: Anna Barnett on 04/03/2008 03:41PM GMT

        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.
      • Comment on this subject: 0 comments made

    • Impact of Artificial Reservoir Water Impoundment on Global Sea Level

      • B. F. Chao, Y. H. Wu, Y. S. Li
        Original article citation: Science doi:10.1126/science.1154580 (2008)

      • Categories: Anthropogenic change and Ocean Sciences
      • Recommended by the Editor: Anna Barnett on 03/27/2008 05:44PM GMT

        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?
      • Comment on this subject: 0 comments made

    • Anthropogenically enhanced fluxes of water and carbon from the Mississippi River

      • Peter A. Raymond, Neung-Hwan Oh, R. Eugene Turner, Whitney Broussard
        Original article citation: Nature 451," 449 - 452, (2008).

      • Categories: Anthropogenic change and Earth Sciences
      • Recommended by the Editor: Anna Barnett on 01/25/2008 04:11PM GMT

        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).
      • Comment on this subject: 0 comments made

    • The Spatial Pattern and Mechanisms of Heat Content Change in the North Atlantic

      • M. S. Lozier, S. Leadbetter, R. G. Williams, V. Roussenov, M. S. C. Reed, N. J. Moore
        Original article citation: Science doi:10.1126/science.1146436 (2008)

      • Categories: Climate Variability, Regional Climate, and Anthropogenic change
      • Recommended by the Editor: Anna Barnett on 01/17/2008 04:23PM GMT

        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.
      • Comment on this subject: 0 comments made

    • Global and regional drivers of accelerating CO2 emissions

      • M. R. Raupach, G. Marland, P. Ciais, C. Le Quere, J. G. Canadell, G. Klepper, C. B. Field
        Original article citation: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences doi:10.1073/pnas.0700609104 (2007)

      • Categories: Anthropogenic change, Society, and Energy
      • Recommended by the Editor: Olive Heffernan on 06/06/2007 09:20PM GMT

        Perhaps unsurprising, but this paper by Raupach and coauthors shows that worldwide CO2 emissions increased more rapidly between 2000 and 2004 than predicted by even the worst case IPCC scenarios. The study shows that no region was decarbonizing its energy supply during this period and that CO2 emissions are accelerating worldwide, with China in the lead.
      • Comment on this subject: 0 comments made

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