Biogeochemistry

News & Views | 24 February 2010

Sediment reactions defy dogma

Redox reactions in widely spatially separated layers of marine sediments are coupled to each other. This suggests that bacteria mediate the flow of electrons between the layers — an idea that would previously have been dismissed.

Kenneth H. Nealson

Letter | 27 January 2010

Ensemble reconstruction constraints on the global carbon cycle sensitivity to climate

Anthropogenic global warming is likely to be amplified by positive feedback from the global carbon cycle; however, the magnitude of the climate sensitivity of the global carbon cycle, and thus of its positive feedback strength, is under debate. By combining a probabilistic approach with an ensemble of proxy-based temperature reconstructions and pre-industrial CO₂ data from three ice cores, this climate sensitivity is now shown to be much smaller than previously thought.

David C. Frank
, Jan Esper
& Fortunat Joos

Correspondence | 20 January 2010

Advocacy for carbon capture and storage could arouse distrust

Heleen de Coninck

Research Highlights | 13 January 2010