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Volume 17 Issue 3, March 2024

Ancient human influence on wildfires

A shift towards more frequent, less intense fires in Australia began about 11,000 years ago due to management by indigenous societies, according to charcoal and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon records from cored lake sediments extending back 150,000 years. The image shows a raft-mounted hydraulic coring rig on Girraween Lagoon, northern Australia, looking over to Eucalypt savanna woodland. Middle right is the raft-mounted hydraulic coring rig used to take 18 metres of sediment from the bottom of the lake.

See Bird et al.

Image: Chris Wurster, James Cook University. Cover Design: Alex Wing

Editorial

  • Understanding the ecosystem response to global environmental change requires consideration of geological processes, highlighting the interconnected nature of our Earth system.

    Editorial

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All Minerals Considered

  • Schreibersite is found in meteorites and thought to dwell in planetary cores. Tingting Gu explains how it may also have supported life on the early Earth.

    • Tingting Gu
    All Minerals Considered
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News & Views

  • Canal networks in Southeast Asian peatlands are zones of rapid, light-driven biogeochemical cycling. The canals increase carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere and decrease organic carbon export to the ocean.

    • Christopher Evans
    • Pierre Taillardat
    News & Views
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Research Briefings

  • The carbon emissions of large igneous province magmatism are commonly associated with severe environmental crises. We developed a technique that used sedimentary mercury records to estimate these carbon fluxes through time and found that they are smaller and/or slower than assumed, which suggests that the influence of carbon-cycle feedback processes is underestimated in current models.

    Research Briefing
  • Earthquakes not only affect tree growth directly by causing physical injury to individual trees but also indirectly by inducing changes in forest habitats. We established linkage between tree-ring series and seismic disturbances and found that prominent and lasting seismic legacies in drier areas may be due to an increased infiltration of precipitation through earthquake-induced soil cracks.

    Research Briefing
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