Researchers studying "ghost roads" in rainforests in the Asia-Pacific region say these unofficial roads are growing and harming forest health by providing access to illegal loggers, miners and others. Bill Laurance of James Cook University explains how a team of researchers and more than 200 volunteers spent about 7,000 hours mapping these roads with the aid of Google Earth. "What makes this situation uniquely dangerous for conservation is that the roads are growing fast while remaining hidden and outside government control," Laurance writes.

As climate change accelerates, sea levels are expected to rise significantly faster than wetland adaptation rates and it's becoming increasingly likely that many wetlands will disappear, taking with them their ability to protect shorelines and filter pollutants, writes Randall Parkinson of Florida International University. Parkinson discusses three options to support wetlands, including establishing conservation corridors near existing systems to support a move inland.

Antarctic meteorites may be sinking into the ground and out of sight as temperatures rise, hiding important information about the solar system, says glaciologist Harry Zekollari, co-lead author of the study in Nature Climate Change. Even at temperatures below freezing, the rocks can absorb enough heat from the sun to melt the ice and disappear into pockets where they become trapped when the ice freezes again.

Water shortages in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan -- where rising temperatures are driving the rapid decline of glaciers and the Aral Sea has shrunk by 90% since the 1960s -- could be exacerbated by a Taliban-built canal that will funnel water out of the already-parched region to Afghanistan. Experts say authorities in all of the affected countries must work together to find a solution.

The average global temperature in March was 1.68 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial averages, making it the 10th in a row to shatter heat records. Experts say the heating effect of El Nino has begun to wane, but it is unclear if temperatures will decline substantially as it eases.

Much of the country could see a relatively slow start to the wildfire season this year, but The Great Basin and Southwest could experience elevated activity in the summer, forecasters say. The outlook is derived from multiple sources, including forecasts from the NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, as well as precipitation conditions.