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Just before the start of COP27, IPCC released a popular science version of its latest report on climate change. Deliang Chen, professor at MERGE and BECC, is one of the authors and comments the summary, which is also available for download. To make science on climate change and its effects more available to all, IPCC has released a popular science version of its latest report written in a plain la
https://www.merge.lu.se/article/ipcc-summary-all - 2025-10-03
Swedish, previously uncut forests have been converted to plantations at a steady rate since 2003. In a new study, MERGE-researcher Anders Ahlström and his research team find that old forests have been cut and lost by ∼1.4% per year since 2003, and at this rate they will disappear by the 2070s. Natural ecosystems that have experienced limited direct human impact are threatened by land use change. O
https://www.merge.lu.se/article/old-unprotected-forests-might-disappear-2070s-sweden - 2025-10-03
MERGE is one of the partners in CLIMB-FOREST - a new Horizon Europe project that will investigate how the climate is affected by different ways of managing the forest. There is a lot of expertise in each individual country, but there is no coordinated overview of Europe’s forests and forest health. A major new EU project, CLIMB-FOREST, will create an overview of European forests and forestry over
https://www.merge.lu.se/article/how-climate-affected-forest-management-new-project-help-guide-european-forestry - 2025-10-03
Tipping elements are regions that are vulnerable to climate change and capable of sudden drastic changes. However, it is not well understood to what degree tipping of one element in the system can influence other tipping elements. In this study, the researchers establish long-distance connections (teleconnections) between tipping elements using network analysis – thus applying a new approach in cl
SMHI, the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, is one of the partners in MERGE with many active scientists. SMHI has recently released a podcast that guides the listener through the interesting subject of climate research in practice. In the public debate, we often here the that we need to listen to the climate scientists. But what do climate scientists actually say? How do we study
https://www.merge.lu.se/article/new-podcast-smhi-klimatforskarna - 2025-10-03
With a rainy and blustery Lund as backdrop outside the windows of the Elite Hotel Ideon, the ClimBEco winter meeting 2023 offered a warm and welcoming atmosphere for one and a half days this January. The main focus of this meeting was to learn more about the ongoing research of current PhD students through flash talks. As always with ClimBEco, talks covered a wide spectrum of research that falls w
https://www.merge.lu.se/article/climbeco-winter-meeting-2023-summary - 2025-10-03
Within the activities of the EU HORIZON 2020 project SCIPPER, recordings of NOx (nitrogen oxides) emissions from vessels were remotely collected and analysed. The data originated from different measurement locations in the Baltic Sea and North Sea within 2022. The analysis shows that 50 per cent of the emission measurements of ships that had to comply with the latest Tier III NOx levels, far excee
https://www.merge.lu.se/article/half-ships-well-above-emission-limits-nitrogen-oxide - 2025-10-03
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released a synthesis report summarizing the reports of recent years. Markku Rummukainen, Sweden's contact person for the IPCC and also Professor of Climatology at the Center for Environmental and Climate Science at Lund University and a member of MERGE, answers five question about the new report. What does the new synthesis report say?
https://www.merge.lu.se/article/markku-rummukainen-new-ipcc-report-near-term-action-crucial - 2025-10-03
Not all air pollution are created by humans. As the global average temperature rises, harmful emissions from plants increase and more desert dust is dispersed in the atmosphere. Researchers from the University of Gothenburg ande MERGE-members, among others, warn that this leads to increased health risks. Climate change does not only mean that the global average temperature is rising by several deg
https://www.merge.lu.se/article/deteriorating-air-quality-warmer-world - 2025-10-03
Dense urban areas amplify the effects of higher temperatures, due to the phenomenon of heat islands in cities. Large investments in the electricity network will be necessary to cool us down during heatwaves and keep us warm during cold snaps, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Gothenburg and Lund University. The study presents a modelling platform that ties together cli
https://www.merge.lu.se/article/cities-will-need-more-resilient-electricity-networks-cope-extreme-weather - 2025-10-03
As the ice-breaker Odin set sail on the 7th of May, MERGE-researchers Luisa Ickes, Lovisa Nilsson and Nicolas Faure were on it! The purpose of the expedition is to get to the Arctic Ocean at the beginning of the melting season. The researchers within ARTofMELT (Atmospheric rivers and the onset of sea ice melt) want to find out, among other things, when the ice starts to melt and what processes are
https://www.merge.lu.se/article/greetings-polar-expedition-artofmelt-2023 - 2025-10-03
Professor Torben R. Christensen has a comment published in the international top science journal Nature. In the comment, he looks back at the scientific work in the field of methane flux research since more than 20 years, and worries about the fact that Arctic methane emissions remain almost as uncertain as they were then, and points out that the research on methane fluxes needs to be extended."Me
https://www.merge.lu.se/article/torben-r-christensen-comments-nature - 2025-10-03
The vegetation in Europe has not always looked like it does today. Just as the ice sheet retreated in northern Europe and the population increased, man began to affect the landscape to a greater extent by deforestation. At first on a small scale to facilitate hunting, for example, and then more systematically to make way for agriculture. A new study shows that one of the consequences was changes i
https://www.merge.lu.se/article/deforestation-changed-climate-europe-during-bronze-age - 2025-10-03
Ice sheets, snow and the ocean as far as the eye can see. No shipping vessels or people in sight, and only polar bears for company. The icebreaker Oden sails between Svalbard and Greenland, and this spring, doctoral student Lovisa Nilsson, and a member of MERGE, joined the ship to study the transition from winter to summer in the Arctic, and how soot affects the melting of sea ice. For six weeks,
https://www.merge.lu.se/article/research-trip-arctic-was-followed-polar-bears - 2025-10-03
In September 13-15, 2023 the ClimBEco summer meeting entitled “Double up and double down: linking the global climate and biodiversity crises to bring about fast, fair and transformative change” was held. My research background is not in marine sciences, nor am I used to living by the sea, yet something about the Kristineberg Center for Marine Research brings about a comfortable feeling of being in
https://www.merge.lu.se/article/reflections-climbeco-summer-meeting-2023 - 2025-10-03
ClimBEco is a research school funded by the strategic research areas MERGE and BECC, as well as the Faculty of Science in Lund. In ClimBEco 22 PhD-students was accepted for the years 2013-2015 and for the next period 2014-2016 starting in August they are 22. The annual summer meeting will take place at Falsterbo Kursgård 27-28 August. On day one, special focus will be placed on the latest IPCC rep
https://www.merge.lu.se/article/climbeco-graduate-research-school-summer-status - 2025-10-03
All particles that reach the atmosphere cause different chemical reactions. Particles come partly from natural sources such as volcanic eruptions and forest fires, and partly from pollution and emissions. Aerosol researcher Johan Friberg studies particles at high altitudes. He fears that the global increase in forest fires could have a significant impact on the ozone layer. “I study the air in the
https://www.merge.lu.se/article/increase-forest-fires-may-damage-crucial-ozone-layer - 2025-10-03
Vad är på gång i Sverige och omvärlden inom miljö- och klimatområdet och hur påverkar det myndigheter, företag, intresseorganisationer och forskning? Vilket behov av kunskap finns det och vilka framtidsfrågor behöver adresseras? Det var temat när forskare och koordinatorer från forskningsmiljöerna BECC och MERGE hade möte med miljöernas referensgrupp i Stockholm i oktober. Referensgruppen består a
https://www.merge.lu.se/article/arligt-mote-och-omvarldsspaning-med-merges-och-beccs-referensgrupp - 2025-10-03
On 15-17 May 2024, SMHI, the strategic research areas MERGE and BECC, and the Bolin Centre for Climate Research invite you to the second Swedish Climate Symposium in Norrköping. A symposium for increased scientific understanding of climate change and its environmental and societal consequences. Climate change strongly affects natural systems and humanity. In Sweden, the effects of climate change a
https://www.merge.lu.se/article/now-you-can-submit-your-contribution-swedish-climate-symposium - 2025-10-03
Human mobility in climate risk areas is increasing. The loss of mountain glaciers is accelerating. Reforming food systems can contribute to more equitable climate action. These are some of the latest insights from climate science presented at COP28 with contributions from MERGE-member Deliang Chen, a world-leading climate scientist from the University of Gothenburg. At the ongoing climate meeting
https://www.merge.lu.se/article/ten-new-insights-climate-science - 2025-10-03
