Snow cover in the mountains of Greece – an important water source for communities, agriculture and natural ecosystems during the dry summer months – has more than halved over the past four decades, a study has found.

A synthesis of six assessments of first generation of carbon credit projects designed to reduce deforestation has found that although their climate benefits were often oversold tenfold, many played an important role in reducing forest loss.

Researchers suggest improved valuation methods, that better reflect real reductions in deforestation over time, would increase confidence in the critically important market for these credits.

A new study led by the University of Oxford and ETH Zurich reveals that a key part of the climate system - the large-scale wind patterns that determine where rain falls – can be underestimated by current climate models, helping explain why forecasts of regional rainfall remain uncertain. Ultimately, this insight could enable more confident projections of future rainfall patterns, supporting better preparation for floods and droughts.

A new study by researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso has identified a significant rise in Valley fever cases in El Paso over the past decade and found strong connections between the disease and extreme weather, wind and airborne dust.

This study reveals that geographic isolation and Quaternary climatic fluctuations jointly drove genetic differentiation and multiple glacial refugia of the fully mycoheterotrophic herb Burmannia nepalensis, with recent human activity causing population decline.