Biogeochemistry articles within Nature Geoscience

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  • News & Views |

    Lichens, cyanobacteria, mosses and algae coat many terrestrial surfaces. These biological covers turn out to play an important role in the global cycling of carbon and nitrogen.

    • Jayne Belnap

  • Letter |

    Global warmth 20–15 million years ago allowed vegetation to grow on formerly ice-covered areas of Antarctica. Leaf wax and pollen data show that this growth was supported by increased hydrologic activity over the Antarctic coast, derived from a local moisture source.

    • Sarah J. Feakins
    • , Sophie Warny
    •  & Jung-Eun Lee

  • Letter |

    Many terrestrial surfaces are covered by photoautotrophic communities, which are capable of synthesizing their own food from inorganic substances using sunlight. According to an analysis of previously published data, these communities account for nearly half of the biological nitrogen fixation on land.

    • Wolfgang Elbert
    • , Bettina Weber
    •  & Ulrich Pöschl

  • Article |

    Seagrass meadows are some of the most productive ecosystems on Earth. An analysis of organic carbon data from just under one thousand seagrass meadows indicates that, globally, these systems could store between 4.2 and 8.4 Pg carbon.

    • James W. Fourqurean
    • , Carlos M. Duarte
    •  & Oscar Serrano

  • Article |

    In the Arctic, permafrost and glaciers form a ‘cryosphere cap’ that traps methane leaking from hydrocarbon reservoirs, restricting flow to the atmosphere. Aerial surveys and ground-based measurements reveal the release of radiocarbon-depleted methane along boundaries of permafrost thaw and retreating glaciers in Alaska and Greenland.

    • Katey M. Walter Anthony
    • , Peter Anthony
    •  & Jeffrey Chanton

  • Article |

    Human activities, including industry and mining, have increased inorganic mercury deposition in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Model simulations indicate that circumpolar rivers deliver large quantities of mercury to the Arctic Ocean during summer.

    • Jenny A. Fisher
    • , Daniel J. Jacob
    •  & Elsie M. Sunderland

  • News & Views |

    The hothouse climate of the early Eocene epoch was punctuated by a series of transient warming events linked to massive carbon release. Detailed terrestrial records for three of these events indicate that they were caused by similar underlying mechanisms.

    • Ross Secord

  • Letter |

    The Earth’s climate between 60 and 50 million years ago was punctuated by several abrupt warming events, the largest of these being the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum. Carbon isotope records from the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, document these events in the terrestrial realm, and show a consistent scaling between marine and terrestrial records across the three main events.

    • Hemmo A. Abels
    • , William C. Clyde
    •  & Lucas J. Lourens

  • Article |

    Before the rise of oxygen, the atmosphere of the early Earth may have consisted of an organic haze. Geochemical data and modelling suggest that from 2.65 to 2.5 Gyr ago, several transitions between hazy and haze-free atmospheric conditions occurred, potentially linked to variations in biogenic methane production.

    • Aubrey L. Zerkle
    • , Mark W. Claire
    •  & Simon W. Poulton

  • Letter |

    Iron is often a limiting nutrient in ocean regions that have a constant supply of other macro-nutrients, and changes in iron supply over time have been linked to fluctuations in primary productivity. Marine sediments from the equatorial Pacific Ocean show that over the past million years, iron input was linked to the export and burial of biogenic silica.

    • Richard W. Murray
    • , Margaret Leinen
    •  & Christopher W. Knowlton

  • News & Views |

    Glaciers supply downstream ecosystems with reactive dissolved organic carbon during periods of ice and snow melt. An analysis of glacier meltwaters in Alaska shows that anthropogenic aerosols fertilize these waters, raising questions about glacier greening.

    • Martyn Tranter

  • News & Views |

    Atmospheric measurements reveal unexpectedly high concentrations of hydroxyl radicals over tropical forests. Incorporation of a new mechanism of isoprene oxidation into a chemistry model brings simulations into closer agreement with these observations.

    • Mike J. Pilling

  • Letter |

    The hydroxyl radical is a key oxidant in the Earth’s atmosphere. The inclusion in an atmospheric chemistry model of a detailed mechanism of isoprene oxidation, involving the buffering of hydroxyl radical concentrations, improves agreement between model simulations of hydroxyl radical levels and observations.

    • D. Taraborrelli
    • , M. G. Lawrence
    •  & J. Lelieveld

  • Letter |

    Glacier-derived dissolved organic matter represents a quantitatively significant source of ancient, but bioavailable, carbon to downstream ecosystems. Anthropogenic aerosols supply glaciers with aged organic matter, according to an analysis of organic matter from glaciers in Alaska.

    • Aron Stubbins
    • , Eran Hood
    •  & Robert G. M. Spencer

  • Letter |

    The depth of the Earth’s soil cover is controlled by the competing processes of soil production and erosion. Estimates of the rates of these processes over rugged topography suggest that soil-production rates will increase over surfaces that are subject to rapid erosion.

    • Arjun M. Heimsath
    • , Roman A. DiBiase
    •  & Kelin X. Whipple

  • Letter |

    Humid montane tropical forests are often thought to contain low levels of bioavailable nitrogen. An analysis of the concentration and isotopic signature of nitrate in tropical montane forest streams suggests that these ecosystems may be rich in nitrogen.

    • E. N. Jack Brookshire
    • , Lars O. Hedin
    •  & John K. Jackson

  • Letter |

    In the roots of the ocean crust, mantle-derived rocks are progressively hydrated by hydrothermal circulation. Raman spectroscopic analyses of hydrated rocks sampled from the ocean floor reveal accumulations of organic matter, which point to the hydration process as a possible energy source.

    • Bénédicte Ménez
    • , Valerio Pasini
    •  & Daniele Brunelli

  • Letter |

    The length of time the present interglacial would last in the absence of anthropogenic forcing is debated. An alignment of the Holocene and MIS 19c on the basis of the occurrence of the bipolar seesaw suggests that the present interglacial would last another 1,500 years, provided atmospheric CO2 concentrations fell below 240 parts per million by volume.

    • P. C. Tzedakis
    • , J. E. T. Channell
    •  & L. C. Skinner

  • News & Views |

    Inland waters are increasingly recognized as important to the global carbon cycle. Detailed measurements in the United States suggest that significant amounts of carbon dioxide are released from streams and rivers, particularly the smaller ones.

    • John Melack

  • Letter |

    The Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth glaciations were separated by tens of millions of years, although models suggest glacial inception should occur within millions. Numerical modelling suggests that the delay could be explained by inherent limits on silicate weathering rates controlled by the availability of fresh rock.

    • Benjamin Mills
    • , Andrew J. Watson
    •  & Timothy M. Lenton

  • Letter |

    Eutrophication increases the acidity of coastal waters. Model simulations suggest that the drop in pH in coastal waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico since pre-industrial times is greater than that expected from eutrophication and ocean acidification alone.

    • Wei-Jun Cai
    • , Xinping Hu
    •  & Gwo-Ching Gong

  • Letter |

    The Ganges–Brahmaputra drainage basin represents one of the largest sources of terrestrial biospheric carbon to the ocean. Radiocarbon analyses suggest that 20% of the carbon exported from this system has an average age of more than 15,000 years.

    • Valier Galy
    •  & Timothy Eglinton

  • News & Views |

    Naturally produced hydrocarbons such as isoprene influence air quality and climate. Accounting for circadian control of isoprene emissions helps to bring model simulations of ground-level ozone into closer agreement with observations.

    • Alexander T. Archibald

  • Letter |

    The volatile organic compound isoprene — a precursor to the air pollutant ozone — is produced by many plant species. Canopy-scale measurements in Malaysia, combined with model simulations, suggest that isoprene emissions are under circadian control.

    • C. N. Hewitt
    • , K. Ashworth
    •  & O. Wild

  • Article |

    Low levels of biologically available forms of nitrogen can limit phytoplankton growth. Isotopic analyses of seawater samples collected from the Sargasso Sea in the summer suggest that small phytoplankton obtain half of their nitrogen from upwelled nitrate.

    • Sarah E. Fawcett
    • , Michael W. Lomas
    •  & Daniel M. Sigman

  • News & Views |

    Hydroelectric energy is renewable, but reservoirs contribute to climate change by releasing carbon dioxide and methane to the atmosphere. A global estimate suggests that young reservoirs in low latitudes produce the largest emissions.

    • Bernhard Wehrli

  • Letter |

    Reservoirs emit significant amounts of greenhouse gases. An analysis of data from 85 globally distributed hydroelectric reservoirs indicates that about 48 Tg carbon is emitted as carbon dioxide and 3 Tg carbon as methane, and that carbon emissions are correlated with reservoir age and latitude.

    • Nathan Barros
    • , Jonathan J. Cole
    •  & Fábio Roland

  • News & Views |

    Forests affect climate not only by taking up carbon, but also by absorbing solar radiation and enhancing evaporation. In the tropics, the climate benefit of afforestation may be nearly double that expected from carbon budgets alone.

    • Richard A. Betts

  • Letter |

    Blooms of the nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium Trichodesmium, which fuel primary production in tropical and subtropical waters, require large quantities of iron. Laboratory incubations suggest that Trichodesmium accelerates the dissolution of iron oxides and dust, increasing the rate of iron uptake.

    • Maxim Rubin
    • , Ilana Berman-Frank
    •  & Yeala Shaked

  • Article |

    Hydrothermal vents along mid-ocean ridge systems host highly productive communities of microbes. Measurements along the Juan de Fuca ridge suggest that subsurface microbes consume hydrogen in low-temperature hydrothermal fluids, before discharge of these fluids at the sea floor.

    • Scott D. Wankel
    • , Leonid N. Germanovich
    •  & Peter R. Girguis

  • Article |

    A brief period of warming 55.9 Myr ago has been attributed to the release of massive amounts of carbon. Geochemical and model data suggest the peak rate of carbon emission during this interval was relatively slow, and significantly lower than present-day levels of carbon emissions to the atmosphere.

    • Ying Cui
    • , Lee R. Kump
    •  & Ian C. Harding

  • News & Views |

    Animals originated in a world with marine oxygen levels only a fraction of those found in today's oceans. Observations of microbial habitats in present-day lagoons suggest that early animals could have found refuge in oxygen-producing mats.

    • Jake Bailey

  • Letter |

    The evolution of marine complex animals about 635 million years ago took place in relatively low-oxygen waters. An analysis of a low-oxygen, hypersaline lagoon suggests these early animals may have obtained both oxygen and food from widespread microbial mats.

    • Murray Gingras
    • , James W. Hagadorn
    •  & Kurt O. Konhauser

  • Letter |

    Monomethylmercury is a neurotoxin that accumulates in marine organisms. Incubation experiments suggest that methylation of inorganic mercury accounts for around half of the monomethylmercury present in polar marine waters.

    • Igor Lehnherr
    • , Vincent L. St. Louis
    •  & Jane L. Kirk

  • Review Article |

    Carbonate rocks of Middle Ediacaran age record the largest excursion in carbon isotopic compositions in Earth history. A review of the data offers two intriguing explanations: an extraordinary perturbation of the carbon cycle, or post-depositional alteration that is global, rather than local.

    • John P. Grotzinger
    • , David A. Fike
    •  & Woodward W. Fischer

  • News & Views |

    Empirical data on mangrove carbon pools and fluxes are scarce. A field survey in the Indo-Pacific region suggests that the sediments below these remarkable trees hold exceptionally high quantities of carbon.

    • Steven Bouillon

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