A researcher is checking the temperature of a river, with a red color on the thermometer conveying unusally high stream temperature.

Extreme events and river biodiversity under climate change

  • Jonathan D. Tonkin
  • Tadeu Siqueira
  • Julian D. Olden
Review Article

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    This series draws together Nature Reviews Biodiversity articles that outline challenges, propose solutions and summarise progress in meeting the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework targets.

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    • Ongoing and projected climate changes are bringing increased marine heatwave frequency and intensity, threatening the health and survival of coral reefs. This Roadmap outlines the potential for assisted evolution methods to increase thermal tolerance in corals and describes ways to accelerate research and development for enhancing coral adaptation rates.

      • Adriana Humanes
      • Line Bay
      • Juan C. Ortiz
      Roadmap
    • Nature-based carbon projects are widely promoted as delivering both climate and biodiversity benefits. However, carbon accounting requirements can diverge from the needs of biodiversity conservation. This Perspective examines challenges related to additionality, leakage, permanence and unintended social and ecological impacts, highlighting limits to the utility of carbon markets for conservation.

      • Yiwen Zeng
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      • Lian Pin Koh
      Perspective
    • Meeting the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework goals in Africa relies on scaling up genomics research and digital sequence information infrastructure across the continent. This Roadmap presents the African BioGenome Project’s theory of change, which identifies challenges and makes recommendations for actions to improve genomics research while meeting global biodiversity goals.

      • Sally Mueni Katee
      • Marietjie Botes
      • ThankGod Echezona Ebenezer
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    • Attributing biodiversity change to interacting human drivers requires causal frameworks that integrate observational, experimental and mechanistic approaches across scales. In this Perspective, the authors discuss an attribution framework to strengthen causal inference and guide more effective biodiversity management under rapidly changing global conditions.

      • Anne Thomas
      • Wilfried Thuiller
      • Andrew Gonzalez
      Perspective
    • Thermal stress reduces fertility in animals at temperatures below lethal, yet these sublethal effects remain underrepresented in biodiversity forecasts. This Review synthesizes current knowledge on how elevated temperatures reduce reproductive output and the evolutionary and ecological downstream effects of this phenomenon.

      • Rhonda R. Snook
      • Amanda Bretman
      • Claudia Fricke
      Review Article