From devastating wildfires and landslides to droughts and extreme heat waves, climate-related events disrupt the lives of communities around the world. How these events impact the health of Los Angeles’s vulnerable communities is a question numerous USC researchers are working to solve. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $4.1 million to a USC-led initiative to build a community of transdisciplinary scientists and a robust infrastructure with the goal of advancing solution-oriented climate change adaptation and health research. The center is called CLIMA, short for the CLIMAte-related Exposures, Adaptation and Health Equity Center. CLIMA researchers have been collaborating with USC Dornsife Public Exchange and the City of Los Angeles Climate Emergency Mobilization Office (CEMO) to build a visual mapping tool called a StoryMap, which can add narrative context to the city and county’s extreme heat challenges. By combining Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping with accessible climate storytelling, the StoryMap can inform the public about the risks associated with extreme heat, as well as provide resources for and information regarding the City of Los Angeles’ #HeatRelief4LA campaign.

The Antarctic Canyon Experiment (ACE) is a five-year £2.4m project through which scientists will use state of the art technology to assess the causes and effects of the currents – also known as underwater avalanches – occurring deep in the Southern Ocean. Led by the University of Plymouth, it will also involve an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), Northern Illinois University (USA), the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (New Zealand), National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (Italy), The Australian National University (Australia) and the Alfred Wegener Institute (Germany).

New findings, published today in Royal Society Open Science, have revealed that changes in ocean density have a significant impact on the rate at which marine plankton incorporate carbon into their shells. This has profound implications for carbon cycling and the ocean’s ability to absorb atmospheric CO₂ in response to climate change.