Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Volume 2 Issue 4, April 2009

The oceans are becoming more acidic as they absorb anthropogenic carbon dioxide — this may limit the ability of marine organisms to secrete carbonate. A sediment-trap study shows that in the Southern Ocean the shell weights of a surface-dwelling single-celled organism with a calcite shell are lower than pre-industrial values, probably as a result of increasing ocean acidity. The image, obtained by scanning electron microscopy, shows a modern Globigerina bulloides shell recovered from a sediment trap in the Southern Ocean. Image courtesy of Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre.

Letter p276; Backstory p308

Editorial

  • The exploration of the Solar System is an expensive endeavour. The greater the number of nations that engage in peaceful planetary research the better.

    Editorial

    Advertisement

  • Presubmission enquiries have only rarely resolved the question of whether a paper is suitable for Nature Geoscience. We are now removing this option from our online submission system.

    Editorial
Top of page ⤴

Correspondence

Top of page ⤴

Commentary

  • Mars exploration has been guided by the search for water. The more complex quest by Mars Science Laboratory for habitable environments should illuminate the Martian environmental history, and possibly deliver insights into extraterrestrial life.

    • John Grotzinger
    Commentary
Top of page ⤴

Feature

  • Since the end of the Apollo era, the Moon has received relatively little attention from planetary scientists. Fresh interest from a new range of nations could lead to insights into our satellite's evolution and resources.

    • Paul Spudis
    Feature
Top of page ⤴

Books & Arts

Top of page ⤴

Research Highlights

Top of page ⤴

News & Views

  • The timing of the earliest production of oxygen by photosynthesis is hotly debated. Haematite crystals from Pilbara, Australia, may provide evidence for a deep ocean that was at least occasionally oxygenated by photosynthetic microbes 3.46 billion years ago.

    • Kurt Konhauser
    News & Views
  • The enhanced Arctic warming over the past three decades is attracting much attention. Combining forward and inverse models with observations suggests that regional changes in aerosol concentrations have contributed significantly.

    • Noel Keenlyside
    News & Views
  • Most of the dust in Antarctic ice cores originates in the glacial outwash of Patagonia. Sedimentary evidence suggests that during the last glacial period, pro-glacial lakes provided an on/off switch for the dust flux to Antarctica.

    • Robert P. Ackert Jr
    News & Views
  • Volcanic rocks at island arcs can show characteristics of the subducting oceanic plate. The isotopic signature of rocks at the Izu-Bonin arc in the northwest Pacific suggest the presence of Indian-type rather than Pacific-type oceanic crust.

    • Jo Whittaker
    News & Views
  • The vast Thaumasia plateau on Mars is fringed by extensive zones of deformation. Topographic and structural analysis suggests that the plateau may have slipped in a massive landslide, deforming its margins in the process.

    • Jeffrey C. Andrews-Hanna
    News & Views
Top of page ⤴

Review Article

  • Cordilleran orogenic systems are long belts of deformation and magmatism that form when oceanic plates subduct beneath continental ones. Links between processes in the upper continental plate explain key features of Cordilleran systems, such as cyclical trends in the flux and composition of magma supplied to the upper plate.

    • Peter G. DeCelles
    • Mihai N. Ducea
    • George Zandt
    Review Article
Top of page ⤴

Letter

  • The mineralogy of the dwarf planet Ceres has long remained uncertain. The infrared spectral features of this planetary body are indicative of minerals derived from the aqueous alteration of olivine-rich materials, suggesting that Ceres is not represented by any known meteorite.

    • Ralph E. Milliken
    • Andrew S. Rivkin
    Letter
  • Human-induced climate change is expected to cause sea-level rise globally as well as regionally. An analysis of state-of-the-art climate models indicates that the northeastern US coast is particularly likely to experience substantial rises in regional sea level as a result of the projected slowdown of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation.

    • Jianjun Yin
    • Michael E. Schlesinger
    • Ronald J. Stouffer
    Letter
  • Colloids, such as submicrometre mineral particles or bacterial cells, can act as carriers enhancing the mobility of poorly soluble contaminants in subsurface environments. Spectroscopic and microscopic analysis of flooded soils suggests that copper colloids and metal sulphide colloids increase the concentration of contaminants in waterlogged soils.

    • Frank-Andreas Weber
    • Andreas Voegelin
    • Ruben Kretzschmar
    Letter
  • The diatom Pseudo-nitzschia produces the neurotoxin domoic acid, known to cause illness and death in marine mammals and humans. Measurements of surface- and deep-water domoic acid concentrations off the coast of California suggest that this toxin is rapidly transported to depth following diatom blooms.

    • Emily Sekula-Wood
    • Astrid Schnetzer
    • Robert Thunell
    Letter
  • The oceans are becoming more acidic as they absorb anthropogenic carbon dioxide—this may limit the ability of marine organisms to secrete carbonate. A sediment-trap study shows that in the Southern Ocean the shell weights of a surface-dwelling single-celled organism with a calcite shell are lower than pre-industrial values, probably as a result of increasing ocean acidity.

    • Andrew D. Moy
    • William R. Howard
    • Thomas W. Trull
    Letter
  • Dust deposition over Antarctica was much higher during the last glacial period, but the causes of this flux remain unclear. An analysis of the composition and age of glacial outwash sediments indicates that growth and decay of glaciers in Patagonia may have influenced dust transport to Antarctica at that time.

    • David E. Sugden
    • Robert D. McCulloch
    • Andrew S. Hein
    Letter
  • Since 42 million years ago, the northwestern Pacific Izu Bonin arc magmas have incorporated lead from subducted Indian-type oceanic crust. This crust probably formed at a now-extinct spreading centre in the Pacific basin that tapped Indian-type upper mantle, suggesting a greater extent for this mantle domain than accepted at present.

    • Susanne M. Straub
    • Steven L. Goldstein
    • Angelika Schmidt
    Letter
  • The relative importance of the various factors that lead to intraplate deformation has been difficult to establish. Modelling results show that compressional deformation of a thick sedimentary basin in southeastern Ukraine was facilitated by strain localization resulting from the contrast in thermal conductivity between the basin and the surrounding crystalline crust.

    • Randell Stephenson
    • David L. Egholm
    • Sergiy M. Stovba
    Letter
Top of page ⤴

Article

  • The relative importance of regional and global changes in atmospheric greenhouse gas and aerosol concentrations for regional changes in climate is not well known. A climate model analysis of tropical, mid-latitude and polar regions shows that the extratropics and, in particular, the Arctic region are sensitive to local changes in radiative forcing.

    • Drew Shindell
    • Greg Faluvegi
    Article
  • The timing of the origin of photosynthesis remains controversial. The discovery of ancient haematite crystals that formed in a jasper formation in Australia, which was created in a marine setting, suggests that oxygen was being produced, at least locally, by photosynthesis as early as 3.46 billion years ago.

    • Masamichi Hoashi
    • David C. Bevacqua
    • Hiroshi Ohmoto
    Article
Top of page ⤴

Corrigendum

Top of page ⤴

Backstory

  • Andrew Moy and colleagues studied foraminifera in sediments, and made their own contributions to the sea, in their attempt to understand calcification in the Southern Ocean.

    Backstory
  • Emily Sekula-Wood and colleagues held their breath as they waited for results to rise up from the depths of the coastal ocean off California.

    Backstory
  • Susanne Straub and colleagues examined teaspoons of 42-million-year-old volcanic ash to elucidate the impact of plate tectonics on arc magmatism.

    Backstory
Top of page ⤴

Focus

  • Our eternal quest to explore space continues to take us where No. humans have gone before. But while we push the frontiers of the Solar System, seeking to launch spacecraft to Europa and Ganymede, we are also rediscovering our relationship with the Moon. This Focus provides a glimpse into what we know, and do not know, about planetary bodies.

    Focus
Top of page ⤴

Search

Quick links