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A new scientific analysis finds that intensifying drought conditions combined with rising temperatures are increasing extinction risk for cactus species worldwide. The research draws on climate projections and ecological data to show that extreme climate events, rather than average conditions, are key drivers of range loss in these plants.
A new scientific study reports that cacti, often assumed to be resilient desert plants, are in fact severely threatened by intensifying drought conditions linked to global warming. Researchers found that many cactus species face significant physiological stress and risk under increasingly arid, hotter conditions.
A long-debated plan to drain Lake Powell, the reservoir behind Glen Canyon Dam, has resurfaced as the Colorado River basin faces worsening water shortages. Advocates argue the move would help conserve dwindling water supplies while also restoring Glen Canyon, an ecosystem submerged since the dam's construction decades ago.
Researchers studying a 10-km2 plot in Doñana National Park found that severe droughts, which cut prey availability for predators by 4-5 times, coincide with unusual interactions among top predators such as lynx and raptors. The team classified drought years as those where flooding covered less than 20% of the normal maximum extent by February-March, using satellite inundation data covering 684 km2 of marshes, ponds and lagoons.
Researchers from the CARBAM project analyzed 15 years of aircraft-based CO2 and CO measurements across four Amazon basin sites, collecting over 1,000 vertical atmospheric profiles. The data indicate that carbon emissions from the Amazon region are primarily caused by human activities, with drought periods intensifying these emissions.
Researchers grew Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings, including several ecotypes and mutant lines, under varying media concentrations and water-deficit conditions created by altering agar hardness and water content. They compared roots grown along the agar surface, which are exposed to both air and agar, with roots grown fully embedded in agar to test whether this mixed exposure affects cell lineage patterns in the root tip. Root tips were harvested for protoplast isolation to analyze cellular responses across these environmental conditions.
A study by Fajardo and colleagues, published in Nature, found that Northern Hemisphere conifer species introduced into Southern Hemisphere environments grow noticeably faster than their counterparts in native ranges. The transplanted trees also showed better resistance to and recovery from drought stress compared with those growing at home.
Climate scientists tracking 14 forecasting models report that central Pacific sea surface temperatures are running about 2.9°C above the 30-year average, more than 1°C hotter than at the same point in the record 1997 and 2015 El Niño events. Models now give a greater than 90% probability that this year's El Niño will exceed every event recorded since the 1870s, raising fears of severe drought, flooding, wildfires and coral bleaching worldwide.
Researchers have identified numerous rock glaciers—ice masses disguised beneath layers of rock and debris—that were previously overlooked in freshwater assessments. The newly mapped ice reserves amount to roughly 600 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of water, hidden in mountainous terrain around the world.
NOAA data shows the contiguous United States just endured its warmest summer since record-keeping began, with an average temperature of 75.6°F and daytime highs averaging 88.6°F, surpassing the previous record set jointly by 2021 and 1936. The South and West bore the brunt of the heat, while Arizona logged its second-hottest summer ever and Alaska and Hawaii each posted their third-warmest.
A viral video shows a large data center in Denver's Elyria-Swansea neighborhood running sprinklers heavily on its grounds while residents face stage-one drought restrictions limiting lawn watering to two days a week. The facility is believed to be an 18-megawatt, 170,000-square-foot site owned by cloud provider CoreSite, though the tenants using the space haven't been confirmed.
NASA's satellite imaging teams have documented New Mexico's largest reservoir, Elephant Butte, dwindling to just 1.4% of its capacity due to prolonged drought conditions. Beyond monitoring the water loss, these scientists are working directly with farmers and communities affected by the shortage to help manage the crisis.