Grassland on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) in northwest China is degrading due to climate change and intense livestock grazing. Government initiatives to restore biodiversity and fertility to the soil are underway, but the lack of engagement from local communities is one of the main causes of failed projects. A research team comprising local Tibetans and academics from the UK and China has lived among and studied two pastoral communities on the QTP for decades, investigating local attitudes and values to grassland restoration.

The team’s recent findings, published in the journal People and Nature, demonstrate that local community members are indispensable partners in enhancing community engagement in repairing damaged ecosystems and achieving long-term success.

Grassland on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP)  in northwest China is degrading due to climate change and intense livestock grazing. Government initiatives to restore biodiversity and fertility to the soil are underway, but the lack of engagement from local communities is one of the main causes of failed projects. A research team comprising local Tibetans and academics from the UK and China has lived among and studied two pastoral communities on the QTP for decades, investigating local attitudes and values to grassland restoration.

The team’s recent findings, published in the journal People and Nature, demonstrate that local community members are indispensable partners in enhancing community engagement in repairing damaged ecosystems and achieving long-term success.

While, in theory, precipitation impacts the Earth’s radiation budget, the radiative effects of precipitation (REP) are poorly understood and excluded from most climate models. Hence, a new study examined the role of REP in the global and regional energy budgets and hydrological cycles, finding that REP significantly contributes to temperature and precipitation variations at different geographical scales, especially in the Arctic warming. This highlights the relevance of including REP in climate modeling for improved accuracy.

In this study, the crystal structure of serpentine (antigorite) was investigated using first-principles calculations under pressure. The results showed that the structure and chemical composition of antigorite changed gradually under high pressure, and it is highly likely that water was released by these structural changes during the subduction process. It was shown that the changes in the modulated structure (polysome) reported in this study may explain the distribution of intermediate-depth earthquakes reported by observations.

Researchers at the Geodynamics Research Center (GRC), Ehime University, were able to determine the sound velocities in a synthetic lunar mantle rock, containing a high percentage of garnet, by means of synchrotron radiation and ultrasonic measurements in a large volume press apparatus. Their results suggest that significant amounts of garnet could be present in the deep lunar interior, the presence of which has important implications for the formation, composition, and internal dynamics of the Moon.

Global warming as well as recent droughts and floods threaten large populations along the Nile Valley. Understanding how such a large river will respond to an invigorated hydrological cycle is therefore a pressing issue. Insights can be gained by studying past periods with wetter and warmer conditions, such as the North African Humid Period eleven to six thousand years ago. A research team of the German Research Centre for Geosciences GFZ, led by Cécile Blanchet, together with colleagues at the University of Innsbruck (Austria) and the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (Germany) analysed a 1,500 year long annually-laminated sediment core. The study was published today in Nature Geoscience.

It reveals that wetter climates led to very strong and weak floods and a highly instable river system, which may have rendered the Nile valley uninhabitable. Although intensified, flood variability was paced by similar climatic forcing as today, operating on annual – like El Niño – to multi-decadal timescales. This suggests that the occurrence of such extreme events might be predictable helping to reduce risks for local populations.

Meet Gaiasia jennyae, the swamp creature with a toilet seat-shaped head. It lived 40 million years before the first dinosaurs, and it was the top predator in its ecosystem.