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Cryptogamic organisms such as bryophytes and lichens contribute substantially to emissions of secondary organic aerosol precursors as well as to the uptake of atmospheric oxidation products over the Amazon rainforest, suggest measurements at a remote Amazon rainforest site.
Humans may have settled the Faroe Islands and begun using the land for livestock grazing as early as 500 CE, around 300 years earlier than previously believed, according to sedimentary DNA and molecular fecal biomarkers from a lake sediment core.
The evolution of river systems in the eastern Tibetan Plateau is controlled by the indentation of India at the large-scale but by fluvial self-organization at the scale of lower-order river networks, according to geomorphological analyses of river systems.
A slow-down in warming and ice loss in Greenland over the past decade is linked to a shift in El Niño events towards the central Pacific through an atmospheric remote forcing, according to analyses of observations and simulations with an atmospheric circulation model.
Spatial patterns in lake evaporation increase with global warming are closely linked to regional hydroclimate drying through energetic and aerodynamic effects, according to analyses of ensemble projections of lake and climate models.
Strategic forest reserves based on biodiversity and carbon storage can help to protect animal and tree species habitat, surface drinking water and carbon stocks and accumulation in the western US, suggests an assessment of current forest preservation.
Sand sheet deposits in a tidal marsh at Chaihuín, Chile, suggest that a great earthquake in 1737 did produce a tsunami despite the lack of historical records for one. The area may be more prone to tsunami inundation than previously believed.
Temperature and precipitation patterns during the Last Glacial Maximum are better predictors of global-scale variations in the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration in response to nitrogen enrichment than contemporary climate, according to a global meta-analysis and structural equation model.
Low meltwater input, cold temperatures, and high salinity accompanied a large diatom bloom off the Northern Antarctic Peninsula in 2015/2016 and suggests such blooms may be restricted under warmer conditions, according to direct measurements and remote sensing data.
Veins of aragonite in deep ocean trenches can record discharges of CO2-rich paleoseawater and suggest that exposed serpentinized forearcs can act as carbon reservoirs, according to residence time calculations based on geochemical analyses of mantle rocks from offshore Japan.
Upscaling in situ carbon flux measurements using remotely sensed and meteorological observations in a machine learning algorithm leads to improved estimates of average uptake, and interannual variability in global drylands.
Increased fire activity in the Early Jurassic is related to changes in the hydrological cycle driven by enhanced seasonality due to orbital forcing, according to a mid-latitude sedimentary charcoal record spanning 350,000 years.
Wetlands dominate methane emissions in Amazonia, with the largest emissions in the east but no discernible temporal trend, according to nine years of atmospheric methane observations across Amazonia.
High burial of organic carbon in sediments around 2 billion years ago acted to enhance crustal deformation and led to intensified mountain building both in the Paleoproterozoic and since, suggests an assessment of the timing of carbon burial and deformation
Sector-based methane emissions can be backed out from observed methane fluxes, using a Bayesian optimal estimation method. This could help with monitoring gas leaks from industry.
The topography of the Dronning Maud Land Mountains, Antarctica, has become more pronounced and rugged since preglacial times due to higher glacial erosion at low elevations and lower erosion at high elevations, according to low-temperature thermochronology
Increased long-term phosphorus accumulation reduces carbon sequestration in mid-latitude peatlands reliant on atmospheric nutrient sources, according to a synthesis of data from Central Europe, North America, Chile, Sweden and the UK.
Physiographic changes such as river catchment drainage reorganisations played an important role in Quaternary species diversification in Sundaland, Southeast Asia, according to simulations using combined landscape evolution and connectivity models.
Subsurface temperature and salinity in the Western Pacific Warm Pool were linked to the shallow overturning circulation and varied on orbital timescales over the past 360,000 years in El Niño/Southern Oscillation-like processes, suggest foraminifera proxy records and numerical modelling.
Aridity, soil nutrient stoichiometry and bulk carbon content are reliable predictors of microbial residue accumulation in soil carbon pools, according to a meta-analysis of amino sugar concentrations in grasslands, woodlands and forests.