Biogeochemistry articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Earth-system sensitivity (ESS) describes the long-term temperature response for a given change in atmospheric CO2 and, as such, is a crucial parameter to assess future climate change. Here, the authors use a Bayesian model with data from the last 420 Myrs to reduce uncertainties and estimate ESS to be around 3.4 °C.

    • Tony E. Wong
    • , Ying Cui
    •  & Klaus Keller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mercury is a neurotoxin and pollutant with enhanced emissions from anthropogenic activities. Here, the authors develop a global emissions, transport, and human risk model and find substantial future losses in revenue and public health if emission reductions proposed by the Minamata Convention are delayed.

    • Yanxu Zhang
    • , Zhengcheng Song
    •  & Ping Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The macroalgae Sargassum has grown for centuries in the oligotrophic North Atlantic supported by natural nutrient sources and cycling. Here the authors show that changes in tissue nutrient contents since the 1980s reflect global anthropogenic nitrogen enrichment, causing blooms in the wider Atlantic basin.

    • B. E. Lapointe
    • , R. A. Brewton
    •  & P. L. Morton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A large fraction of ice sheet discharge enters the ocean subsurface from underneath large floating ice-tongues. Here the authors show that associated nutrient export may be governed by shelf circulation and, especially for Fe, particle-dissolved phase exchanges, which is largely independent from freshwater Fe content.

    • Stephan Krisch
    • , Mark James Hopwood
    •  & Eric Pieter Achterberg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Expanded phosphorus availability possibly triggered a marine bioproduction boom after 2.3 billion years ago, but its delivery mechanisms remain unclear. Here we propose a kaolinite shuttle which efficiently adsorbs phosphorus in continental weathering settings and releases it under marine conditions.

    • Weiduo Hao
    • , Kaarel Mänd
    •  & Kurt O. Konhauser

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How to curb climate change is uncertain, in part because determination of allowable emissions depends on models with low accuracy. Here the authors re-analyze climate-carbon feedbacks and find that CO2 emissions could be 9 ± 7% higher and still meet Paris Agreement goals.

    • Xuanze Zhang
    • , Ying-Ping Wang
    •  & Yongqiang Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Marine snow is a major route through which photosynthetically fixed carbon is transported to the deep ocean, but the factors affecting flux are largely unknown. Here the authors use high frequency imaging of marine snow particles collected during phytoplankton blooms to categorize and quantify transport.

    • Emilia Trudnowska
    • , Léo Lacour
    •  & Lars Stemmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is thought that polyphenols inhibit organic matter decomposition in soils devoid of oxygen. Here the authors use metabolomics and genome-resolved metaproteomics to provide experimental evidence of polyphenol biodegradation and maintained soil microbial community metabolism despite anoxia.

    • Bridget B. McGivern
    • , Malak M. Tfaily
    •  & Kelly C. Wrighton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the past is necessary to comprehend Earth’s response to present climate change, but past climate reconstruction is hampered by a lack of temperature proxies. Here the authors develop the HDI26, a proxy using cyanobacterial glycolipids to reconstruct water temperatures of lakes worldwide.

    • Thorsten Bauersachs
    • , James M. Russell
    •  & Lorenz Schwark

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microplastic pollution is a major threat to marine food webs, but the wider ranging impacts on global ocean biogeochemistry are poorly understood. Here the authors use an Earth system model to determine that zooplankton grazing on microplastics could exacerbate trends in ocean oxygen loss.

    • K. Kvale
    • , A. E. F. Prowe
    •  & A. Oschlies

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ocean warming and changing circulation as a result of climate change are driving down oxygen levels and threatening ecosystems. Here the author shows that though immediate cessation of anthropogenic CO2 emissions would halt upper ocean oxygen loss, it would continue in the deep ocean for 100 s of years.

    • Andreas Oschlies

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Wetland methane emissions contribute to global warming, and are oversimplified in climate models. Here the authors use eddy covariance measurements from 48 global sites to demonstrate seasonal hysteresis in methane-temperature relationships and suggest the importance of microbial processes.

    • Kuang-Yu Chang
    • , William J. Riley
    •  & Donatella Zona

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The conditions that shaped Earth’s evolution during the Archaean and Proterozoic Eons remain unknown. Using Lake Towuti in Indonesia as an analog of early oceans the authors find that microbial methanogenesis exerts a strong influence with important implications for the composition of Earth’s early atmosphere.

    • André Friese
    • , Kohen Bauer
    •  & Jens Kallmeyer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The photosynthesis performed by trees makes them an important sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide, but trees are also sources of the potent greenhouse gas methane. Here the authors find that tree bark in some common lowland species is colonized by methane oxidizing bacteria that can reduce tree methane emissions by ~ 36%.

    • Luke C. Jeffrey
    • , Damien T. Maher
    •  & Scott G. Johnston

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Permian–Triassic mass extinction was accompanied by a massive release of carbon into the ocean-atmosphere system, but the magnitude of change is not well known. Here, the authors present a new record of C3 plants from southwestern China which shows that atmospheric pCO2 increased by a factor of six during this event.

    • Yuyang Wu
    • , Daoliang Chu
    •  & Ying Cui

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Palaeodata resolution and dating limit the study of the sequence of changes across Earth during past abrupt warmings. Here, the authors show tight decadal-scale coupling between Greenland climate, North Atlantic sea ice and atmospheric circulation during these past events using two highly resolved ice-core records.

    • E. Capron
    • , S. O. Rasmussen
    •  & J. W. C. White

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is much uncertainty on the response of soil microbial communities to warming, particularly in the subsoil. Here, the authors investigate microbial community and metabolism response to 4.5 years of whole-profile soil warming, finding depth-dependent effects and elevated subsoil microbial respiration.

    • Nicholas C. Dove
    • , Margaret S. Torn
    •  & Neslihan Taş

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cyanobacterial photosynthesis is thought to have oxygenated Earth’s atmosphere during the Great Oxidation Event, but these organisms had to overcome the toxic effects of iron. Here the authors simulate Archaean conditions in Cyanobacterial cultures and find that gas exchange and rust formation alleviated iron toxicity.

    • A. J. Herrmann
    • , J. Sorwat
    •  & M. M. Gehringer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Radioactive 137Cs is a fission product remaining in the environment from mid-20th century nuclear testing. Here the authors show that vegetation thousands of kilometers from testing sites continues to cycle 137Cs, and consequently, bees magnify this contaminant in honey in regions with low soil potassium.

    • J. M. Kaste
    • , P. Volante
    •  & A. J. Elmore

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Inland waters emit greenhouse gases, but robust estimations are hampered by a dearth of spatio-temporally resolved measurements. Here the authors present annual fluxes of CO2 from Chinese inland waters over the past several decades, showing that emission fluxes have significantly declined since the 80s.

    • Lishan Ran
    • , David E. Butman
    •  & Shaoda Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Determining the origins of life on Earth is confounded by the fact that the sources of nutrients necessary to create early life forms remain mysterious. Here the authors show that lightning strikes could have supplied a major source of essential phosphorus on early Earth.

    • Benjamin L. Hess
    • , Sandra Piazolo
    •  & Jason Harvey

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Anoxic marine zones are expanding and intensifying with climate change. Here the authors show that microbial dark carbon fixation influences the carbonate system and the stable isotope composition in waters off Chile, contributing up to 35% of the organic carbon reaching the mesopelagic region.

    • Cristian A. Vargas
    • , Sebastian I. Cantarero
    •  & Joe Salisbury

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The impacts of a melting Arctic on the biogeochemistry of marine ecosystems are unknown. Here, the authors investigate glacial input of iron to Svalbard fjords finding that reworking of glacial iron in fjord sediment is important to make iron bioavailable, but could be susceptible to glacial retreat.

    • Katja Laufer-Meiser
    • , Alexander B. Michaud
    •  & Bo Barker Jørgensen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The extent to which chemical products of water radiolysis could sustain subseafloor microbial life is unknown. Here the authors show that sediment catalyzes radiolytic production of H2 and oxidants, providing the primary energy source for life in ancient marine sediment.

    • Justine F. Sauvage
    • , Ashton Flinders
    •  & Steven D’Hondt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The N cycle involves complex, microbially-mediated shuttling between ammonium, nitrite and nitrate, with climatically important greenhouse gas byproducts. Here the authors use isotope labeling experiments in river sediments and find a cryptic new step in the N cycle between nitrification and the removal of fixed N through N2 gas production.

    • Liao Ouyang
    • , Bo Thamdrup
    •  & Mark Trimmer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The fate of ocean carbon is determined by the balance between primary productivity and heterotrophic breakdown of that photosynthate. Here the authors show that diatoms produce a polysaccharide that resists bacterial degradation, accumulates, aggregates and stores carbon during spring blooms.

    • Silvia Vidal-Melgosa
    • , Andreas Sichert
    •  & Jan-Hendrik Hehemann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is widely hypothesised that primeval life utilized small organic molecules as sources of carbon and energy, however, the presence of such primordial ingredients in early Earth habitats has not yet been demonstrated. Here the authors report the existence of indigenous organic molecules and gases in primary fluid inclusions in c. 3.5- billion-year-old rocks from Western Australia.

    • Helge Mißbach
    • , Jan-Peter Duda
    •  & Volker Thiel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The future of terrestrial systems is influenced by their past, but this carryover effect is rarely quantified. Here, the authors provide the first quantitative evidence that a greener spring begets a greener summer and autumn, and that this carryover effect is even stronger than climate drivers.

    • Xu Lian
    • , Shilong Piao
    •  & Ranga B. Myneni

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The deglaciation of Marinoan snowball Earth (~635 Myr ago) has been associated with potentially extensive CH4 emissions in relation to transient marine euxinia. Here, the authors find that active methanogenesis occurred during the termination of Marinoan snowball Earth, fueled by methyl sulfide production in sulfidic seawater.

    • Zhouqiao Zhao
    • , Bing Shen
    •  & Haoran Ma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Southern Ocean productivity is a crucial component of the carbon cycle, but phytoplankton there are thought to be limited by iron. Here the authors conduct trace metal incubation experiments across the Drake Passage, finding that manganese can play an unexpected role in restricting phytoplankton growth.

    • Thomas J. Browning
    • , Eric P. Achterberg
    •  & Edward Mawji

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tree mortality is increasing with climate change, which suggests that the biomass of dead wood is likely becoming more and more important to the global carbon cycle. Here, the authors perform a meta-analysis of the carbon content of dead wood and find that past estimates of total forest carbon were overestimated.

    • Adam R. Martin
    • , Grant M. Domke
    •  & Sean C. Thomas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Enigmatic blooms of phytoplankton in aquatic oxygen-deficient zones could exacerbate depletion of nitrogen. Here the authors perform stable isotope experiments on the oxygen-deficient waters of Lake Tanganyika in Africa, finding that blooms drive down fixed nitrogen and could expand as a result of climate change.

    • Cameron M. Callbeck
    • , Benedikt Ehrenfels
    •  & Carsten J. Schubert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rivers and lakes are thought to be a major conduit of loss for the massive amounts of carbon locked away in high-latitude systems, but such losses are poorly constrained. Here the authors quantify carbon emissions from rivers and lakes across Western Siberia, finding that emissions are high and exceed carbon export to the Arctic Ocean.

    • Jan Karlsson
    • , Svetlana Serikova
    •  & Oleg S. Pokrovsky

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soil organic matter (SOM) is a huge sink of carbon, but the varied flux dynamics are challenging to predict. Here, the authors present a new model with the complexities of SOM cycling, including parameters for substrate accessibility, microbe diversity, and enzymatic substrate depolymerization.

    • Julien Sainte-Marie
    • , Matthieu Barrandon
    •  & Delphine Derrien

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cloud cover and scarcity of ground-based validation hinder remote sensing of forest dynamics in the Amazon basin. Here, the authors analyse imagery from a high-frequency geostationary satellite sensor to study monthly NDVI patterns in the Amazon forest, finding support for spatially extensive seasonality.

    • Hirofumi Hashimoto
    • , Weile Wang
    •  & Ramakrishna R. Nemani

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Clays in soil impact atmospheric CO2 by stabilizing soil organic matter, yet the dynamics of this process under future climate conditions are unknown. Here the authors present a way to observe clay-carbon dynamics within micro-aggregates using 4D imaging and a customized microfluidic chip.

    • Judy Q. Yang
    • , Xinning Zhang
    •  & Howard A. Stone

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet—a threat for sea level rise—is accelerated by ice algal blooms. Here the authors find a link between mineral phosphorus and glacier algae, indicating that dust-derived nutrients aid bloom development, thereby impacting ice sheet melting.

    • Jenine McCutcheon
    • , Stefanie Lutz
    •  & Liane G. Benning

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Global oxygen regulation over Earth history has largely depended on variations in organic carbon burial, which includes the suppression of land vegetation due to fires. Here, the authors show that major evolutionary changes in plant ecosystems could have influenced fire regimes and thus affected atmospheric O2.

    • Claire M. Belcher
    • , Benjamin J. W. Mills
    •  & Andrew J. Watson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The expansion of oceanic anoxia during the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum has important implications for faunal turnover patterns and global biogeochemical cycles. Here the authors use uranium isotopes and a biogeochemical model to suggest that the areal expansion of anoxia must have been limited to 10-fold.

    • Matthew O. Clarkson
    • , Timothy M. Lenton
    •  & Derek Vance

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soils hold massive amounts of carbon that hangs in the balance of microbial respiration and climate warming. Here the authors analyze a global dataset starting in 1987 and find through modeling that though soil respiration change had flatlined, recently it has resumed increasing owing to global warming.

    • Jiesi Lei
    • , Xue Guo
    •  & Yunfeng Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Constraining the rise in atmospheric oxygen through the early Earth is important to understand the evolution of complex life. Here, the authors find that a major rise in atmospheric oxygen level occurred after the Great Oxidation Event, followed by pO2 within 1% of present atmospheric level through most of the Proterozoic Eon (2.4 to 0.65 Ga).

    • Xiao-Ming Liu
    • , Linda C. Kah
    •  & Robert M. Hazen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Burial of organic material in marine sediments can sequester massive amounts of carbon, but the dynamics of this carbon sink are poorly understood. Here the authors investigate the so-called rusty carbon sink in Arctic shelf sediments, finding that organic carbon-iron associations are stable for 1000 s of years.

    • Johan C. Faust
    • , Allyson Tessin
    •  & Christian März

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study investigates in the importance of non-fossil fuel NOx emissions in the surface-earth-nitrogen cycle. The study shows how changes of regional human activities directly influence δ15N signatures of deposited NOx to terrestrial environments and that emissions have largely been underestimated.

    • Wei Song
    • , Xue-Yan Liu
    •  & Cong-Qiang Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Groundwater discharge is a mechanism that transports chemicals from inland systems to the ocean, but it has been considered of secondary influence compared to rivers. Here the authors assess the global significance of groundwater discharge, finding that it has a unique and important contribution to ocean chemistry and Earth-system models.

    • Kimberley K. Mayfield
    • , Anton Eisenhauer
    •  & Adina Paytan

Browse broader subjects

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Biogeochemistry across other nature.com journals