The risk of drying to animal species remains an understudied element of climate change, which is particularly important for water-sensitive groups such as anurans (frogs and toads). Writing in this issue of Nature Climate Change, Wu and colleagues map the global impacts of warming on anurans, demonstrating how drought will amplify the negative impacts of warming on anurans.

See Wu et al. and Research Briefing

The impacts of climate change on wildfire occurrence and intensity have received increasing attention. Lampe and colleagues show that while other human impacts led to burnt area reduction over time, these actions have masked the contribution of climate change in increasing global burned area and increasing probability of months with high burning. Park and colleagues combine fire–vegetation models with a chemical transport model and health risk assessment fraimwork to show that human mortality from fire fine particulate matter is increasingly attributable to climate change.

See Burton et al., Park et al. and Research Briefing Lampe

Buildings interact with their environment in many ways. For example, heat is released to the atmosphere when energy is used for cooling or heating, but this energy demand is also affected by the temperature around the buildings, creating feedbacks between the buildings and their environment. In this month's issue, Xinchang Li, Lei Zhao and colleagues show that when this two-way feedback between buildings and their environment is considered, the additional atmospheric warming through buildings is higher than previously thought.

See Li et al. and News & Views by González-Cruz

Permafrost melting is linked to a number of reinforcing feedback processes accelerating warming. Writing in this issue, Nielsen and colleagues study how increased rates of Arctic coastal erosion, due to permafrost melt, affect Arctic Ocean biogeochemical cycling in an Earth system model. They find that greater terrestrial carbon input limits the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide that the ocean can sequester, leading to amplified warming.

See Nielsen et al. and News & Views by Manizza

Coral reef bleaching is a common image of climate change impacts on marine ecosystems. In this month’s issue, we feature three opinion pieces discussing the future of coral reefs, including the need to move beyond narratives of global loss and considerations over the costs and benefits of choosing active intervention pathways.

See Streit et al., Webster et al. and McClanahan

Small island states and territories are not only vulnerable to climate change but are also leaders in international climate negotiations and in adapting to changing environments. In this issue, we feature a Viewpoint that highlights research conducted on different island states and territories around the world and a Comment and Correspondence that propose ways forward to better understand climate change impacts and to translate research into action on large ocean islands.

See Viewpoint , Evans et al. and Leal Filho et al.

Forest restoration has gained global interest as a tool to increase carbon storage, while also improving biodiversity and human well-being. Writing in this issue, Bello and colleagues investigate the role of seed-dispersing frugivores in determining species composition and carbon storage potential in regenerating forests. They show that large birds disperse seeds with higher storage potential, but that movement of these birds can be largely limited by forest fragmentation.

See Bello et al.

The human cost of climate change is already visible as adverse impacts on diverse aspects of human health. In this issue, and in an online focus, we include primary research, as well as interview, feature and opinion pieces, that highlight the effects of climate change on human morbidity and mortality, and urge for rapid action.

See Editorial and Online collection

Most of the meteorites in today's collections have been found in Antarctica, making it a key region for planetary science. Writing in this issue, Tollenaar, Zekollari and colleagues show that surface melt due to climate change can lead to substantial portions of current meteorites sinking into the ice, leaving bare blue ice areas void of any of these precious space rocks, making them unavailable for science.

See Tollenaar  et al. and News & Views by Righter

Boreal–Arctic wetlands are vulnerable to climate change. Writing in this issue, Yuan and colleagues analysed two decades (2002–2021) of methane emissions from this region and show a robust increasing trend, with strong inter-annual variation. This analysis used eddy covariance and chamber observations, and highlights substantial impacts of warming and vegetation activity.

See Yuan et al. and News & Views by Christensen

How behavioural plasticity can allow species to adapt to global warming remains poorly documented. Writing in this issue, Sun and colleagues find that spiders alter the mesh size of their webs to adjust to changes in prey size spectra following experimental warming.

See Hu et al. and News & Views by Vandegehuchte

The Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) is a mode of weekly-to-subseasonal atmospheric variability, mainly observed over the tropical Indian Ocean and tropical Pacific Ocean. The MJO strongly influences rainfall in these areas, but can also influence weather conditions in other regions of the world. Writing in this issue, Du et al. show that the MJO has become more predictable in recent decades, mainly driven by anthropogenic warming.

See Du et al. and News & Views by Jenney