Wind plays an overlooked role in ecosystem water-use efficiency

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters

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Wind does more than sway trees. It also plays an important role in determining an ecosystem’s water-use efficiency—defined as the amount of carbon an ecosystem absorbs per unit of water lost. Water-use efficiency is an important measure of how ecosystems balance growth and water availability.

Plants absorb carbon dioxide during photosynthesis while losing water through their leaves. In addition, ecosystems lose water through evaporation from soil and other surfaces. Understanding the balance between carbon absorption and water loss is essential for predicting how ecosystems respond to climate change.

Now, a research team led by Prof. FU Zheng at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has revealed a previously overlooked role for wind in regulating ecosystem water-use efficiency.

The findings were published in Nature Climate Change on October 15.

In the new study, the researchers analyzed observations from monitoring sites worldwide, covering forests, grasslands, croplands, and other ecosystems. Even after accounting for temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, atmospheric dryness, and carbon dioxide concentration, they found that stronger winds were associated with lower water-use efficiency at nearly 80% of the sites.

Across these sites, water-use efficiency showed a stronger median standardized response to wind speed than to the other environmental factors examined, highlighting the previously underappreciated importance of wind.

But why does wind have such an effect?

Much like a breeze speeding up the drying of wet clothes, stronger winds remove moist air from around vegetation, allowing water to escape more easily into the atmosphere.

The researchers found that declining water-use efficiency was driven mainly by increased evapotranspiration—water loss through evaporation and plant transpiration—with reduced carbon uptake through photosynthesis playing a smaller role. Evergreen needleleaf forests and ecosystems in humid regions were particularly sensitive to changes in wind speed.

Using Earth system models, the team further found that future changes in wind speed could substantially influence ecosystem water-use efficiency, although the magnitude of this effect would vary across climate scenarios.

According to the researchers, these findings highlight wind speed as an important yet often overlooked factor in the global carbon and water cycles. As wind patterns continue to change, accounting more fully for their effects on ecosystem carbon uptake and water loss could improve Earth system model predictions of terrestrial ecosystem responses to future climate change.

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Journal

Nature Climate Change

DOI

10.1038/s41558-026-02781-z

Article Title

High wind speed reduces water use efficiency across terrestrial ecosystems

Article Publication Date

15-Oct-2026

 

Electromagnetic induction heating offers a new route for biomass conversion

Faster heating and magnetic catalysts could improve energy efficiency and chemical selectivity

Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts

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Faster heating and magnetic catalysts could improve energy efficiency and chemical selectivity.

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Credit: School of Advanced Energy, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen 518107, China zejunluo@cityu.edu.hk

Turning biomass into fuels and valuable chemicals requires substantial heat, and conventional heating methods can consume considerable energy while limiting control over reaction pathways. Electromagnetic induction heating offers an alternative by generating heat through an alternating magnetic field, either in conductive reactor materials or in magnetic particles incorporated into the reaction system.
The review, published in the Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts, examines the use of this technology across biomass thermochemical conversion, including pyrolysis, gasification and the upgrading of biomass-derived platform molecules. These processes can transform renewable feedstocks into products such as bio-oil, biochar, synthesis gas and higher-value chemicals.
According to the literature reviewed, induction heating can achieve heating rates of around 80 °C per second under suitable conditions, while energy efficiency improvements of more than 20% have been reported. In one cited study, energy consumption during biomass pyrolysis was reduced by 26.5%. These figures come from individual studies and should not be interpreted as universal performance guarantees.
A key feature of the technology is its compatibility with magnetic catalysts. Rather than relying solely on heat transferred from a reactor wall, magnetic materials can generate heat locally under an alternating magnetic field. This approach may improve contact between heat sources and reactants, accelerate catalytic reactions and influence the selectivity of target products. The review discusses examples involving the conversion of furfural and other biomass-derived molecules into useful chemicals.
However, the authors emphasize that promising laboratory results do not yet establish industrial readiness. Reactor scale-up can introduce uneven temperature distributions, while the interactions among electromagnetic fields, heat transfer, mass flow and chemical reactions remain insufficiently quantified. Catalyst design also involves balancing magnetic heating performance with catalytic activity and stability.
The review identifies three priorities for future research: developing and validating multiphysics models, designing magnetic catalysts with balanced heating and catalytic properties, and understanding how reactor scale-up affects temperature uniformity and product selectivity. Addressing these challenges will be essential to determine whether induction-heated biomass conversion can become a practical alternative to established industrial processes.
 

 

See the article:

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobab.2026.100309

Original Source URL

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2369969826000812

Journal

Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts

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Journal

Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts

DOI

10.1016/j.jobab.2026.100309

Method of Research

Literature review

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Electromagnetic Induction Heating Initiates Thermochemical Conversion of Biomass to Produce Energy and High Value Chemicals

Article Publication Date

14-Oct-2026

 

Winter sea ice loss may be underestimated, according to ancient clues from a warmer Arctic

University of Cambridge

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Arctic sea ice from the air. 

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Credit: Sarah Das

Future Arctic winter sea ice is likely to shrink by around one million square kilometres more than previously thought, after researchers used clues from a warm period 6,000 years ago to improve the reliability of climate models.

The results, reported in the journal Nature Geoscience, could have implications for future winter conditions in the UK and across Europe.

The retreat of Arctic sea ice in the summer months has been widely reported. However, the loss of winter sea ice has received far less attention, despite the fact that climate models disagree with each other most during the winter months.

Winter ice cover plays an outsize role in weather patterns beyond the Arctic, as it regulates the release of heat and moisture to the atmosphere. Its loss has been linked to colder winters and heavier snowfall in the UK, the rest of northern Europe, and North America. In March 2025, the Arctic recorded its lowest maximum sea ice extent since modern measurements began. That record was tied again this year.

Now, researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Centro de Investigación en Matematicas in Mexico (CIMAT) have complied the largest-ever database of a key biomarker produced by algae living in sea ice to improve winter sea ice projections. The samples were taken from ocean sediment cores dating from the mid-Holocene period, when subtle shifts in the Earth’s orbit contributed to warmer conditions and reduced sea ice cover in the Arctic, offering clues into how the region might respond to future warming.

By measuring levels of the biomarker, called IP25, alongside complementary biomarkers from organisms that live in open water, the researchers were able to estimate the extent of sea ice cover thousands of years ago.

These ancient measurements were then compared to simulations from 27 climate models of the same period. Using a type of statistical analysis called Bayesian weighting, the researchers gave different weights to models based on how well they reproduced the ancient sea ice conditions. Because the same physical processes govern sea ice across different climates, these model weights could then be applied to simulations of the recent past and future.

Taken together, the models over-predicted how much winter sea ice there should be. “When we apply the model weights to historical simulations, we completely eliminated the positive bias,” said lead author Crystal Fu, from Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute. “The future projections similarly end up being lower than previous estimates, by about a million square kilometres.”

Using past climate data, known as palaeoclimate data, to make predictions about the future is challenging. “The scientific community has amassed lots of palaeoclimate records over recent decades, but it’s remained a challenge to directly link these records to future projections, since there is uncertainty at both ends,” said Fu.

The approach used by Fu and her colleagues helped reduce the range of uncertainty in their projections by as much as 85%. “By using evidence from the past, we can now produce more reliable maps of where Arctic winter sea ice is likely to disappear,” said co-author Marco Aquino-López, of CIMAT. “These give us a much clearer picture of what the Arctic might look like in the coming decades, and how much uncertainty remains.”

Although the Arctic warmed for different reasons in the mid-Holocene than today, Fu says that regardless of the cause, sea ice will respond in the same way. “It doesn’t matter if the warming is natural variation or caused by human activity: if it warms, sea ice is going to melt,” she said.

The researchers say they found hints in their study that knock-on effects could be larger than expected. Applying their revised climate model weights to precipitation projections suggests that snowfall over southeast Greenland and rainfall in the Mediterranean may also be underestimated, which could have implications for the stability of the Greenland ice sheet, and future flood risk in southern Europe.

The research was supported in part by the US National Science Foundation and the Cambridge Trust. Crystal Fu is a Member of Girton College, Cambridge.

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Journal

Nature Geoscience

DOI

10.1038/s41561-026-02123-w

Article Title

Palaeoclimate constraints tighten future Arctic winter sea ice projections

Article Publication Date

16-Oct-2026

Arctic sea ice from the air

Credit

Matthew Osman

 

Study finds treating depression during pregnancy may benefit babies' brain development

First randomized clinical trial finds prenatal psychotherapy changes infant brain structure and is linked to lower negative emotionality in early infancy

University of Colorado Anschutz

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Treating depression during pregnancy influences infant brain development and early emotional function, according to new research published in Nature Communications.

In the first randomized controlled trial to demonstrate that a prenatal depression intervention can affect infant brain structure, researchers found that babies whose mothers received psychotherapy for depression during pregnancy showed differences in the development of a brain region involved in emotion and memory. Those brain differences were associated with lower negative emotionality in infancy.

The findings provide some of the strongest evidence to date that maternal mental health during pregnancy can have intergenerational effects on child development.

"Research has long shown that depression during pregnancy is associated with differences in children's emotional and behavioral outcomes, but most of that evidence has been correlational," said Catherine Demers, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado Anschutz and lead author. "By using a randomized clinical trial, we were able to test whether treating depression during pregnancy can actually influence early brain development in infants."

Prenatal depression is one of the most common complications of pregnancy, affecting an estimated 20% to 40% of pregnant individuals. Previous studies have linked maternal depression during pregnancy with an increased risk of emotional, behavioral and mental health challenges in children, but researchers have lacked experimental evidence to determine whether improving maternal mental health could alter those outcomes.

To answer that question, investigators conducted the Care Project, a randomized clinical trial involving pregnant individuals experiencing elevated depressive symptoms.

Participants were randomly assigned to receive either a form of interpersonal psychotherapy consisting of eight weekly 50-minute sessions focused on relationships and social support, or enhanced usual care, which included standard obstetric care, a psychoeducation session about depression during pregnancy and information about community mental health resources.

Infants whose mothers received psychotherapy during pregnancy developed differently in  the hippocampus, a brain region involved in memory and emotions. Babies whose mothers received treatment showed a 5% difference in their hippocampus compared with those whose mothers received usual care.  Notably, this brain region predicted better emotion regulation when babies were 6-months of age. The findings add to growing evidence that depression during pregnancy may affect how the baby’s developing brain matures, with implications for children's emotional health later in life.

"Our findings suggest that treating mother’s depression during pregnancy may help shape a healthier developmental trajectory for the infant brain," said Elysia Davis, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Denver and the SEED Research Institute and corresponding author. "This study highlights pregnancy as a critical window for intervention and reinforces that supporting maternal mental health is also an investment in child health."

The findings underscore the importance of integrating mental health services into prenatal care. Because prenatal depression is both common and treatable, improving access to evidence-based mental health interventions during pregnancy could benefit the mothers’ mental wellbeing as well as the next generation.

"These findings provide compelling evidence that mental health care during pregnancy has the potential to create intergenerational benefits," said Benjamin Hankin, PhD, Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. "Supporting maternal mental health may be one of the earliest opportunities we have to promote healthy child development."

Key Takeaways

• Prenatal depression affects up to 40% of pregnant individuals and is associated with child developmental outcomes.
• This study is the first randomized clinical trial to show that treating depression during pregnancy can influence infant brain structure.
• Babies whose mothers received psychotherapy during pregnancy showed differences in the development of the hippocampus, a brain region important for emotion and memory.
• The findings suggest that pregnancy is a critical window for preventive mental health care with potential long-term benefits for both mothers and children.

About the University of Colorado Anschutz
The University of Colorado Anschutz is a world-class academic medical campus leading transformative advances in science, medicine, education and patient care. The campus includes the University of Colorado’s health professional schools, more than 60 centers and institutes, and two nationally ranked independent hospitals - UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital and Children's Hospital Colorado - which see nearly three million adult and pediatric patient visits each year. Innovative, interconnected and highly collaborative, CU Anschutz delivers life-changing treatments, exceptional patient care and top-tier professional training. The campus conducts world-renowned research supported by $890 million in funding, including $762 million in sponsored awards and $128 million in philanthropic gifts for research.

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Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-026-78276-4

Article Publication Date

16-Oct-2026

 

Socioeconomic Challenges Amidst a Global Triple Threat of Conflicts, COVID-19 and Climate Change: General Issues (part 7)

How are global healthcare disruptions and geopolitical tensions reshaping economic stability and international trade?

Bentham Science Publishers

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About the Book

Socioeconomic Challenges Amidst a Global Triple Threat of Conflicts, COVID-19 and Climate Change: General Issues (Part 7) concludes the series by examining broader socioeconomic challenges arising from the convergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, conflicts, international sanctions, climate-related disasters and geopolitical tensions.

The volume explores how these interconnected crises affect economic systems, healthcare, trade, energy pathways and other essential sectors. It highlights the wider consequences of healthcare system disruptions and examines how geopolitical tensions between the United States and China are influencing economic stability and global trade.

Bringing together economic, political, environmental and social perspectives, Part 7 provides broader insights into the interconnected forces shaping global stability and the socioeconomic consequences of an increasingly complex international landscape.

Key Features

• Examines the global socioeconomic effects of interconnected crises
• Explores disruptions to healthcare systems and their wider consequences
• Analyses U.S.–China geopolitical tensions and their impact on economic stability
• Examines the effects of geopolitical developments on global trade
• Highlights connections between health, economics, politics and global stability
• Provides multidisciplinary perspectives on contemporary global challenges

Readership

The book is intended for researchers and students studying war and conflict, public health, epidemiology, international affairs, peace and conflict studies and health economics, as well as diplomats, policy and development analysts and humanitarian workers.

About the Editors

Abdul Kader Mohiuddin, Úrsula Oswald-Spring, and Omar S. Rasheed bring complementary expertise spanning pharmaceutical sciences, climate change, social vulnerability, peace research, psychology and humanitarian mental health, providing a multidisciplinary perspective on global crises and their human consequences.

Explore the Book: https://bit.ly/3TD2qcX

DOI: 10.2174/97988988170221260101
https://doi.org/10.2174/97988988170221260101

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DOI

10.2174/97988988170221260101 

 

JMIR News: Informed consent’s redesign for AI-related trials, an autonomous oxygenation device, and the physician-led campaign for Canada’s Safe Social Media Act

JMIR Publications

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Toronto, October 16, 2026 — JMIR Publications this week released three News and Perspectives features on the latest digital health news: stories on how informed consent must be rethought for clinical trials involving AI; Canada’s proposed Safe Social Media Act and the Canadian Medical Association’s support; and a promising new autonomous oxygen titration device for health care.

 

Designing Informed Consent for AI Trials

In "Informed Consent in the AI Age: Why and How Documentation Must Change", JMIR Correspondent and researcher Hankun Su argues that traditional informed consent frameworks, which tend to assume that risks to patient safety are static and that clinicians will be able to fill in any gaps in understanding, are inadequate for clinical trials that use AI. “Documents must anticipate questions clinicians cannot answer and provide accessible responses within the text itself,” he writes. Su and his colleagues developed an informed consent framework for AI-related clinical trials that mandates transparency and disclosure, uses tiered standards based on risk, and employs dynamic consent mechanisms—one of many possible frameworks. “The deeper imperative,” writes Su, is recognizing that participant autonomy in AI trials depends on information ecosystems designed for the world as it actually functions, not the world as we wish it were.”

The Canadian Medical Association’s Campaign for Social Media Safeguards

JMIR Correspondent Wendy Glauser reports on a physician-led campaign in favour of Canada’s Bill C-34 in "Canadian Medical Association Calls for Social Media Policies to “Heal Childhood””. Bill C-34, if passed, would “ban children under 16 from creating social media accounts, unless the platform can show that it has adequate safeguards in place to protect children’s mental health…[and] require AI chatbots and social media platforms to better prevent cyberbullying and content that encourages self-harm or sexually victimizes children,” writes Glauser. She speaks with physicians on the upticks in mental health issues they’ve observed in their offices, as well as with psychology researcher Amori Mikami, PhD on the complexities of social media’s effects—good and bad—on mental health.

Offloading Oxygenation 

Hypoxemic patients need their supplemental oxygen flow to be adjusted repeatedly to maintain a healthy blood oxygen level, creating a critical but time-consuming task for health care workers. In "Could Autonomous Oxygen Titration Help Patients—And Busy Care Teams—Breathe Easier?", JMIR Correspondent and ICU nurse Jenna Congdon covers a promising closed-loop device that uses feedback from a pulse oximeter to titrate patients’ blood oxygen levels to a set target. A recent clinical trial evaluating this device found that the automated oxygenation control “significantly reduced time spent in both hypoxemia and hyperoxemia” (low and high blood oxygen, respectively). Still, writes Congdon, “autonomous titration still operates within clinician-prescribed parameters…it raises a question about who holds ultimate responsibility when things go wrong.”

 

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About JMIR Publications News and Perspectives

JMIR Publications is a leading open access publisher of digital health research. The News and Perspectives section is the newest addition to its portfolio, established to bring the rigor and integrity of academic publishing to scientific journalism. The section features well-researched, expert-driven content from the Scientific News Editor, Kayleigh-Ann Clegg, PhD, and a network of specialist JMIR Publications Correspondents to keep the digital health community informed, inspired, and ahead of the curve.

About JMIR Publications

JMIR Publications is a leading open access publisher of digital health research and a champion of open science. With a focus on author advocacy and research amplification, JMIR Publications partners with researchers to advance their careers and maximize the impact of their work. As a technology organization with publishing at its core, we provide innovative tools and resources that go beyond traditional publishing, supporting researchers at every step of the dissemination process. Our portfolio features a range of peer-reviewed journals, including the renowned Journal of Medical Internet Research. 

To find out more about JMIR Publications, visit jmirpublications.com or connect with them on Bluesky, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

Media Contact:

Dennis O’Brien, Vice President, Communications & Partnerships

JMIR Publications

communications@jmir.org

+1 416-583-2040

The content of this communication is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, published by JMIR Publications, is properly cited.

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Journal

Journal of Medical Internet Research

Method of Research

Commentary/editorial

Subject of Research

People