Explore the latest insights from top science journals in the Muser Press daily roundup, featuring impactful research on climate change challenges.
In brief:
UK peatland fires are supercharging carbon emissions as climate change causes hotter, drier summers
More fires, taking hold over more months of the year, are causing more carbon to be released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
Fires on peatlands, which are carbon-rich, can almost double global fire-driven carbon emissions. Researchers found that despite accounting for only a quarter of the total UK land area that burns each year, dwarfed by moor and heathland, peatland fires have caused up to 90% of annual UK fire-driven carbon emissions since 2001 – with emissions spikes in particularly dry years.
Peat only burns when it’s hot and dry enough – conditions that are occurring more often with climate change. The peatlands of Saddleworth Moor in the Peak District, and Flow Country in northern Scotland, have both been affected by huge wildfires in recent years.
The researchers say land-managers can play an important role in helping to achieve Net Zero climate goals by keeping peatlands wet. This will reduce the likelihood of intense fires and their associated high carbon emissions.
Unlike heather moorland which takes up to twenty years to regrow after a fire, burnt peatland can take centuries to reaccumulate. The loss of this valuable carbon store makes the increasing wildfire frequency on peatlands a real cause for concern.
The researchers also calculated that carbon emissions from fires on UK peatland are likely to rise by at least 60% if the planet warms by 2 °C.
The findings, which are broadly relevant to peatlands in temperate climates, are published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
“We found that peatland fires are responsible for a disproportionately large amount of the carbon emissions caused by UK wildfires, which we project will increase even more with climate change,” said Dr Adam Pellegrini in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences, senior author of the study.
He added: “Peatland reaccumulates lost carbon so slowly as it recovers after a wildfire that this process is limited for climate change mitigation. We need to focus on preventing that peat from burning in the first place, by re-wetting peatlands.”
The researchers found that the UK’s ‘fire season’ – when fires occur on natural land – has lengthened dramatically since 2011, from between one and four months in the years 2011-2016 to between six and nine months in the years 2017-2021. The change is particularly marked in Scotland, where almost half of all UK fires occur.
Nine percent of the UK is covered by peatland, which in a healthy condition removes over three million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per year.
The researchers estimate 800,000 tonnes of carbon were emitted from fires on UK peatlands between 2001 and 2021. The 2018 Saddleworth Moor fire emitted 24,000 tonnes of carbon, and the 2019 Flow Country fire emitted 96,000 tonnes of carbon from burning peat.
To get their results, the researchers mapped all UK wildfires over a period of 20 years – assessing where they burn, how much carbon they emit, and how climate change is affecting fires. This involved combining data on fire locations, vegetation type and carbon content, soil moisture, and peat depth. Using UK Met Office data, the also team used simulated climate conditions to predict how wildfires in the UK will change in the future.
The study only considered land where wildfires have occurred in the past, and did not consider the future increases in burned area that are likely to occur with hotter, drier UK summers.
Rewetting peatlands to protecting the carbon they store will require land managers to be incentivised – the researchers say this won’t be easy, but the impact could be big.
“Buffering the UK’s peatlands against really hot, dry summers is a great way to reduce carbon emissions as part of our goal to reach net zero. Humans are capable of incredible things when we’re incentivised to do them,” said Pellegrini.
An average of 5,600 hectares of moor and heathland burns across the UK each year, compared to 2,500 hectares of peatland.
Journal Reference:
Sarah J Baker et al., ‘Spikes in UK wildfire emissions driven by peatland fires in dry years’, Environmental Research Letters 20, 034028 (2025). DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/adafc6
Article Source:
Press Release/Material by University of Cambridge
Turtles change nesting patterns in response to climate change
Researchers monitoring nesting green and loggerhead turtles in Cyprus have discovered they are returning to their regular nesting spots earlier each year to compensate for rising temperatures.
In sea turtles, temperature determines the biological sex of offspring, with more females born when it is warmer, as well as fewer successful hatchings when it gets too hot.
Turtles also have “natal philopatry”, which means they return to nest in the area where they themselves hatched.
A research team from the University of Exeter and the Society for the Protection of Turtles predicts – using three decades of data – that by 2100 there will be hardly any new loggerhead turtle offspring produced, unless the turtles counter the higher temperatures by moving their nesting season forward.
After placing temperature loggers into nests at night when the females are laying their eggs and retrieving them once the nest hatches, the researchers estimated that the turtles need to nest 0.5 days per year earlier to maintain the current sex ratio, and 0.7 days per year earlier to prevent egg hatching failures.
But their data showed that the loggerhead turtles are indeed already nesting earlier in the year, with returning females advancing the start of nesting by 0.78 days per year since 1993.
This means that at least for now, the turtles are doing enough to ensure their eggs continue to hatch by nesting earlier in more ideal temperatures.
Professor Annette Broderick said: “This is a bit of good news, as we’ve shown that these turtles are responding to the elevated temperatures brought about by climate change by shifting to cooler months to nest.
“There is no guarantee that they carry on doing this though – it’s very much dependent on how much the temperatures rises, and also what they are eating. If the timing of production in terms of where their food’s coming from shifts, then they could start to be disconnected ecologically between where they forage and where they breed.”
‘Individual plasticity in response to rising sea temperatures contributes to an advancement in green turtle nesting phenology’1 is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
The research team have also published a study using 31 years of data on over 600 individual green turtles nesting at the same beach in North Cyprus to see what influences when they start laying each year, and how we can explain the advancement we have seen over the past three decades.
The research team found that individual turtles were adjusting the timing of nesting based on sea temperature, laying eggs 6.47 days earlier for every 1 °C increase in ocean temperature. They calculated that temperature accounted for around 30% of the advancement, with more experienced females and those laying more clutches also nesting earlier.
Lead author Mollie Rickwood, from the University of Exeter’s Centre for Ecology and Conservation, said: “To know if the advancement we see now will continue into the future, it is crucial to understand the combined effects of changes in, for example, the age structure of the population, and how individual turtles respond to environmental change.”
Dr Damla Beton, from the Society for Protection of Turtles (SPOT), added: “Although our turtles appear to be coping with current rising temperatures, it is unclear how long they may be able to do this before conditions in Cyprus are no longer suitable, but cooler locations in the Mediterranean may become available for them to nest.”
‘Phenological shift mitigates predicted impacts of climate change on sea turtle offspring’2 is published in the journal Endangered Species Research.
Journal Reference:
1. Rickwood Mollie L., Tucker Eve, Beton Damla, Davey Sophie, Godley Brendan J., Snape Robin T. E., Postma Erik and Broderick Annette C., ‘Individual plasticity in response to rising sea temperatures contributes to an advancement in green turtle nesting phenology’, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 292: 20241809 (2025). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2024.1809
2. Witt MJ, Beton D, Davey S, Fuller WJ et al., ‘Phenological shift mitigates predicted impacts of climate change on sea turtle offspring’, Endangered Species Research 56: 41-51 (2025). DOI: 10.3354/esr01382
Article Source:
Press Release/Material by Alex Morrison | University of Exeter
Hurricane-proofed downtown skyscrapers unexpectedly vulnerable to ‘bouncing’ winds
In May 2024, a type of windstorm called derecho caused considerable damage to the facades of Houston’s tall buildings, which had been designed to withstand stronger, hurricane-strength winds. In contrast, hurricane Beryl in July 2024 caused only minimal damage to the same buildings.
Researchers analyzed the damage from this derecho and used wind-tunnel modeling to simulate its unique wind loading effects on miniature tall buildings. They concluded that besides interference between groups of tall buildings, the unique characteristics of local events like derechos worsened the structural damage. This finding has implications for the design of future tall buildings and urban planning.
Houston, we have a problem. The ‘Space City’ boasts 50 buildings over 150 meters tall. These were designed to withstand hurricanes, to which Texas is prone. But on May 16th, 2024, a derecho – a wide, long-lived windstorm associated with rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms – managed to cause unexpected damage to many of the tall buildings downtown. The socio-economic impact was significant, due to traffic disruptions, businesses temporarily closing, and the need for repairs.
Why was the structural damage so much larger than expected? A new study published in Frontiers in Built Environment has now provided the answer to this conundrum. Its findings carry lessons for the future design of tall buildings and the planning of city centers, not only in Houston.
“Here we show that a type of highly localized strong winds called ‘downbursts’, which were generated during the May derecho, can significantly impact tall buildings and facades due to their unique characteristics in comparison to hurricanes,” said Dr Amal Elawady, an associate professor at Florida International University, and one of the study’s authors.
Downbursts are strong downward winds that blow outward in all directions once they hit the ground – and the reason why winds are often much more intense around the ground floor of tall buildings. Elawady leads a research project that utilizes the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure’s ‘Wall of Wind’ experimental facility, funded by the US National Science Foundation, to study the impact of downbursts on tall and low-rise buildings in comparison to hurricanes.
An ill wind
Here, the authors analyzed the impact of the May derecho on five iconic buildings in Houston: the Chevron Building Auditorium, the CenterPoint Energy Plaza, the El Paso Energy Building, the RRI Energy Plaza, and the Wedge International Tower. Built between 1962 and 2003, these high-rises are 158 to 226 meters tall. All conformed to the construction standard which dictates that tall buildings be designed to withstand winds up to 67 meters per second, corresponding to a category 4 hurricane.
Wind speeds measured in downtown Houston during the derecho didn’t come close to this construction standard, as they peaked at 40 meters per second. Nonetheless, as illustrated by the study, facade panels on these tall buildings were dislodged while cladding was damaged, especially on corners and lower floors. Numerous windows cracked or shattered, raining dangerous debris down into the streets.
In contrast, these tall buildings sustained minimal damage during hurricane Beryl, which hit Houston on July 8th, 2024. The maximum wind speed measured in downtown Houston during Beryl was 36 meters per second, comparable to the derecho.
Seeing which way the wind blows
The researchers proceeded to simulate downbursts and hurricanes at the Wall of Wind experimental facility, whose 12 jet fans can generate wind speeds up to 70 meters per second. These were blasted against a revolving miniature representing a tall building on a 1:350 scale. An identical miniature stood at increasing distances ranging from 0.14 to 0.70 meters from the first, to mimic interference from neighboring buildings.
The authors compared two conditions which differed in the variation of the mean wind speed over time: a constant average speed typical of hurricanes, and a speed that at first rapidly ramped up, reached a plateau, and then ramped down, characteristic of downbursts. The results showed that there was far more suction on the sides of buildings during downburst events than during hurricanes.
“When strong winds move through a city, they can bounce due to interference between tall buildings. This increases pressure on walls and windows, making damage more severe than if the buildings were isolated,” said Omar Metwally, a doctoral student who was the study’s first author.
“On top of this, downbursts create intense, localized forces which can exceed typical design values for hurricanes, especially on the lower floors of a tall buildings.”
This one-two punch effect of interference and downbursts on tall buildings is likely to become an even worse problem soon, as human-induced climate change is already hitting Houston especially hard. The Gulf of Mexico is warming at 0.19°C per decade, twice the rate of the global ocean. Higher temperatures are predicted to bring more frequent and more severe extreme weather.
“Accounting for the unique effects of downbursts and thunderstorm winds in derechos is essential in urban planning and building design, to protect tall buildings against damage. Current construction guidelines for facades should be re-revaluated to reflect this,” concluded Metwally.
Journal Reference:
Metwally O, Ibrahim HA, Elawady A, Zisis I and Chowdhury AG, ‘Wind load impact on tall building facades: damage observations during severe wind events and wind tunnel testing’, Frontiers in Built Environment 10: 1514523 (2025). DOI: 10.3389/fbuil.2024.1514523
Article Source:
Press Release/Material by Michiel Dijkstra | Frontiers
Featured image credit: Gerd Altmann | Pixabay
