Featured
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News & Views |
What goes down must come up
Differential cycling of carbonate and organic carbon in the mantle may link the Great Oxidation Event and the subsequent increase in carbon isotope values, according to a model that links the Earth’s surface and interior.
- Jeremy K. Caves Rugenstein
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Article |
Iron-oxidizer hotspots formed by intermittent oxic–anoxic fluid mixing in fractured rocks
Subsurface iron-oxidizing bacteria are sustained by intermittent oxygen delivery through rock fracture networks, according to biological and geochemical analyses of borehole fluids combined with a fluid mixing model.
- Olivier Bochet
- , Lorine Bethencourt
- & Tanguy Le Borgne
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Article |
Extinction intensity during Ordovician and Cenozoic glaciations explained by cooling and palaeogeography
High extinction intensity during Late Ordovician but not Cenozoic transitions to glacial conditions can be attributed to both temperature and palaeogeography, according to analysis combining climate models and simulations of virtual species.
- Erin E. Saupe
- , Huijie Qiao
- & Seth Finnegan
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Article |
Decadal variability in twentieth-century ocean acidification in the California Current Ecosystem
Ocean acidification in the California Current Ecosystem was twice the global average during the past century and influenced by decadal climate variations, according to a record of the calcification rate of planktonic foraminifera from the Santa Barbara Basin.
- Emily B. Osborne
- , Robert C. Thunell
- & Claudia R. Benitez-Nelson
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Article |
A tenfold slowdown in river meander migration driven by plant life
River meanders migrate much faster in barren than in vegetated landscapes, according to global analyses of active meander migration of both unvegetated and vegetated rivers. The difference in migration rates suggests that the rise of land plants had a significant influence on landscapes.
- Alessandro Ielpi
- & Mathieu G. A. Lapôtre
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Article |
Great Oxidation and Lomagundi events linked by deep cycling and enhanced degassing of carbon
Carbon cycling in the mantle may be a common mechanism that links the Great Oxidation Event and the subsequent Lomagundi increase in carbon isotope values, according to a box model that accounts for carbon and oxygen fluxes and reservoirs.
- James Eguchi
- , Johnny Seales
- & Rajdeep Dasgupta
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Article |
Soil carbon storage informed by particulate and mineral-associated organic matter
Land management strategies for enhancing soil carbon sequestration need to be tailored to different soil types, depending on how much organic matter is stored in pools of mineral-associated and particulate organic matter, suggests an analysis of soil organic matter across Europe.
- M. Francesca Cotrufo
- , Maria Giovanna Ranalli
- & Emanuele Lugato
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Matters Arising |
Reply to: Validity of managing peatlands with fire
- R. H. Marrs
- , E.-L. Marsland
- & R. C. Chiverrell
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Article |
Resupply of mesopelagic dissolved iron controlled by particulate iron composition
Regeneration efficiencies of dissolved iron in the mesopelagic zone vary significantly across the oceans, largely depending on particulate composition, according to in situ mesopelagic experiments.
- M. Bressac
- , C. Guieu
- & P. W. Boyd
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Article |
Rapid expansion of northern peatlands and doubled estimate of carbon storage
Northern peatlands are estimated to store more than 1,000 Gt of carbon, almost doubling previous estimates, according to a reconstruction of historical peat carbon accumulation.
- Jonathan E. Nichols
- & Dorothy M. Peteet
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News & Views |
Peatlands as prolific carbon sinks
Northern peatlands store over 1,000 Gt of carbon, almost double previous estimates, according to a new analysis of peat core data. The fate of this peat carbon, however, is uncertain in a rapidly changing world.
- Matthew J. Amesbury
- , Angela Gallego-Sala
- & Julie Loisel
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Article |
Varied contribution of the Southern Ocean to deglacial atmospheric CO2 rise
Southern Ocean surface waters near Australia emerged as a major source of CO2 during the last deglaciation due to shifting ecology and circulation, according a proxy record of seawater pH based on boron isotopes covering the past 25,000 years.
- Andrew D. Moy
- , Martin R. Palmer
- & Thomas B. Chalk
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Article |
Consistent CO2 release by pyrite oxidation on continental shelves prior to glacial terminations
Minimum atmospheric CO2 levels during glacial intervals were set, in part, by repeated CO2 release from pyrite oxidation on exposed continental shelves, according to a geochemical model of the past 3 Myr.
- Martin Kölling
- , Ilham Bouimetarhan
- & Matthias Zabel
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Article |
Global cooling linked to increased glacial carbon storage via changes in Antarctic sea ice
Isolation of deep water around Antarctica due to surface cooling can explain half of the change in atmospheric CO2 levels through glacial–interglacial cycles, according to coupled ocean–sea ice and biogeochemical numerical modelling.
- Alice Marzocchi
- & Malte F. Jansen
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Article |
Reduced continental weathering and marine calcification linked to late Neogene decline in atmospheric CO2
A redistribution of marine calcifiers along with a reduction in weathering led to increased seafloor carbonate deposition during the late Neogene, according to a global compilation of carbonate mass accumulation rate records from sediment cores.
- Weimin Si
- & Yair Rosenthal
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Article |
Field-experiment constraints on the enhancement of the terrestrial carbon sink by CO2 fertilization
The northern temperate carbon sink is estimated to increase by 0.64 PgC each year for each increase in atmospheric CO2 concentrations by 100 ppm, suggests an analysis of data from field experiments at 7 sites constraints.
- Yongwen Liu
- , Shilong Piao
- & Tao Wang
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Article |
Unique Neoproterozoic carbon isotope excursions sustained by coupled evaporite dissolution and pyrite burial
Evaporite dissolution coupled with pyrite burial can lead to biogeochemical feedbacks that explain the enigmatic Neoproterozoic carbon isotope record, according to numerical model simulations.
- Graham A. Shields
- , Benjamin J. W. Mills
- & Timothy M. Lenton
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Perspective |
Global-change controls on soil-carbon accumulation and loss in coastal vegetated ecosystems
Coastal vegetated ecosystems have experienced rapid changes in climate and environmental conditions. These changes have caused disturbances to the amount of carbon they store in soils by altering the decomposition process of organic carbon.
- Amanda C. Spivak
- , Jonathan Sanderman
- & Charles S. Hopkinson
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Matters Arising |
Reply to: Complexities between plants and the atmosphere
- A. Rap
- , C. E. Scott
- & D. V. Spracklen
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Matters Arising |
Complexities between plants and the atmosphere
- Bin Wang
- , Herman H. Shugart
- & Manuel T. Lerdau
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Article |
Sponge skeletons as an important sink of silicon in the global oceans
Inclusion of sponge spicules and radiolarians increases the global ocean biological sink of silicon by 28%, with 95% of that increase attributed to sponges, according to examination of sediments from 17 marine cores.
- Manuel Maldonado
- , María López-Acosta
- & Aude Leynaert
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Article |
Important role of forest disturbances in the global biomass turnover and carbon sinks
Forest stand-replacing disturbances significantly affect the biomass stocks in about a half of forested area globally, according to analyses of global forest loss from satellite data, together with a dynamic vegetation model.
- Thomas A. M. Pugh
- , Almut Arneth
- & Benjamin Smith
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Article |
Persistence of dissolved organic matter explained by molecular changes during its passage through soil
Dissolved organic matter is persistent in soil owing to continuous consumption and transformation rather than owing to its recalcitrant molecular properties, according to analyses of molecular changes of dissolved organic matter as it passes through soil.
- Vanessa-Nina Roth
- , Markus Lange
- & Gerd Gleixner
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Article |
Amazon forest response to CO2 fertilization dependent on plant phosphorus acquisition
Phosphorus limitation can significantly reduce the response of the Amazon forest to CO2 fertilization, according to ecosystem-model ensemble simulations of a free-air CO2 enrichment experiment.
- Katrin Fleischer
- , Anja Rammig
- & David M. Lapola
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Article |
Global fire emissions buffered by the production of pyrogenic carbon
Pyrogenic carbon produced from vegetation fires could be a globally important carbon sink, which amounts to 12% of the carbon emitted from wildfires annually, according to a global fire emission database that incorporates the estimate of pyrogenic carbon.
- Matthew W. Jones
- , Cristina Santín
- & Stefan H. Doerr
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Article |
Important contribution of macroalgae to oceanic carbon sequestration
Macroalgae can be transported across the open ocean, and substantial amounts can reach the seafloor at 4,000 m depth, according to analyses of metagenome data from global expeditions. Macroalgae are a potentially important oceanic carbon sink globally.
- Alejandra Ortega
- , Nathan R. Geraldi
- & Carlos M. Duarte
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Article |
Carbon stocks in central African forests enhanced by elephant disturbance
Elephant disturbance favours the emergence of larger trees with higher wood density, and thereby increases the aboveground biomass in central African forests by up to 60 t ha–1, according to simulations with the Ecosystem Demography model.
- Fabio Berzaghi
- , Marcos Longo
- & Christopher E. Doughty
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Article |
Jurassic shift from abiotic to biotic control on marine ecological success
Controls on the ecological success of marine calcifiers changed from abiotic to biotic in the mid-Jurassic, according an environmental forcing model compared with skeletal taxa.
- Kilian Eichenseer
- , Uwe Balthasar
- & Wolfgang Kiessling
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Article |
California forest die-off linked to multi-year deep soil drying in 2012–2015 drought
Deep soil drying, caused by high evaporation, can explain California forest die-off in the droughts during 2012–2015, according to analyses of patterns of die-off and moisture deficit.
- M. L. Goulden
- & R. C. Bales
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Article |
Direct observation of permafrost degradation and rapid soil carbon loss in tundra
Permafrost loses carbon at a faster rate than previously thought as climate warms, according to direct soil carbon observations over five years in the field in Alaska’s tundra ecosystem.
- César Plaza
- , Elaine Pegoraro
- & Edward A. G. Schuur
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News & Views |
Deforestation releases old carbon
Deep soil carbon in tropical catchments can be rapidly mobilized to rivers upon land-use change to agriculture, suggest analyses of dissolved organic carbon. Such carbon stocks had been thought stable for millennia.
- Alf Ekblad
- & David Bastviken
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Article |
Mobilization of aged and biolabile soil carbon by tropical deforestation
Tropical deforestation induces the loss and transport of old and biolabile soil organic carbon into rivers, suggest analyses of dissolved organic matter in deforested and pristine catchments in the Congo Basin. The mobilized soil carbon is likely to turn into a carbon source.
- Travis W. Drake
- , Kristof Van Oost
- & Robert G. M. Spencer
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Article |
Continental-scale soil carbon composition and vulnerability modulated by regional environmental controls
Soil geochemistry can be more important than climate in controlling carbon storage, its composition as well as stability, but controls are distinct, scale-dependent and variable, according to an analysis of topsoil measurements across Australia.
- R. A. Viscarra Rossel
- , J. Lee
- & A. Richards
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Article |
Hydrogeological constraints on the formation of Palaeoproterozoic banded iron formations
Banded iron formations could not have formed by postdepositional oxidation, according to four million hydrogeological box model iterations that failed to reproduce secondary oxidation on reasonable timescales.
- Leslie J. Robbins
- , Sean P. Funk
- & Kurt O. Konhauser
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Article |
Ammonium availability in the Late Archaean nitrogen cycle
Biologically available nitrogen in the form of ammonium was abundant in the Late Archaean ocean, according to nitrogen isotope and proxy analyses on 2.7 billion year old shales from Zimbabwe.
- J. Yang
- , C. K. Junium
- & A. L. Zerkle
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Article |
Periodic changes in the Cretaceous ocean and climate caused by marine redox see-saw
An internal redox see-saw between the Panthalassa Basin and the proto-North Atlantic can explain cyclic changes in the sediment record throughout the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum 97 to 91 million years ago, according to simulations with a numerical ocean model.
- Klaus Wallmann
- , Sascha Flögel
- & Wolfgang Kuhnt
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Article |
Possible links between extreme oxygen perturbations and the Cambrian radiation of animals
Fluctuations in early Cambrian biodiversity of animals coincided with extreme oscillations in atmospheric and shallow-ocean oxygenation, according to analyses of carbon and sulfur isotopes in Cambrian-age marine carbonates.
- Tianchen He
- , Maoyan Zhu
- & Graham A. Shields
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News & Views |
China’s nitrogen management
Nitrogen deposition in China has stabilized over the past decade, thanks to efficient regulation of fertilizer use, suggests an analysis of wet and dry deposition.
- Maria Kanakidou
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Article |
Proterozoic seawater sulfate scarcity and the evolution of ocean–atmosphere chemistry
In the Proterozoic, sulfate concentrations in the oceans were low and atmospheric methane levels high, according to mass balance and diagenetic models that investigate the oxidation state of the Proterozoic oceans.
- Mojtaba Fakhraee
- , Olivier Hancisse
- & Sergei Katsev
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Article |
Deep Atlantic Ocean carbon storage and the rise of 100,000-year glacial cycles
Deep Atlantic carbon storage increased and the meriodional overturning circulation weakened at the mid-Pleistocene transition to 100,000-year glacial–interglacial cycles, according to analyses of foraminifera trace elements and Nd isotopes.
- J. R. Farmer
- , B. Hönisch
- & J. Kim
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Article |
Distinct air–water gas exchange regimes in low- and high-energy streams
Bubble-mediated gas exchange in high-energy streams accelerates faster as energy dissipation intensifies than does turbulent-diffusion-driven gas exchange in low-energy streams, according to an analysis of new measurements and published data.
- Amber J. Ulseth
- , Robert O. Hall Jr
- & Tom J. Battin
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Article |
Drought impacts on terrestrial primary production underestimated by satellite monitoring
Soil moisture effects can substantially reduce photosynthesis and amplify the impacts of extreme events on primary production, potentially leading to biases in satellite-based estimates of photosynthesis, suggests an analysis of ground-based measurements.
- Benjamin D. Stocker
- , Jakob Zscheischler
- & Josep Peñuelas
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Article |
Increased landslide activity on forested hillslopes following two recent volcanic eruptions in Chile
A delayed increase of landslide activity occurred about two to six years after two volcanic eruptions in Chile in 2008 and 2011, according to remote-sensing data. The time lag is consistent with decaying tree roots in areas covered by tephra.
- Oliver Korup
- , Jan Seidemann
- & Christian H. Mohr
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Article |
Methanogenesis sustained by sulfide weathering during the Great Oxidation Event
Oxidative weathering supplied a crucial flux of nutrients to the late Archaean oceans that sustained methanogenesis and kept the Archaean atmosphere in a methane sweet-spot, according to analyses of nickel isotopes from glacial deposits.
- Shui-Jiong Wang
- , Roberta L. Rudnick
- & Laura E. Wasylenki
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Matters Arising |
No evidence for equatorial Pacific dust fertilization
- A. W. Jacobel
- , R. F. Anderson
- & Y. Zhou
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Article |
Fully oxygenated water columns over continental shelves before the Great Oxidation Event
Before the Great Oxidation Event there was regional-scale, full water-column oxygenation above the continental shelf, according to molybdenum and thallium isotope records that indicate massive manganese oxide burial.
- Chadlin M. Ostrander
- , Sune G. Nielsen
- & Ariel D. Anbar
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Article |
Negligible cycling of terrestrial carbon in many lakes of the arid circumpolar landscape
Many lakes in arid, organic-poor permafrost landscapes have a negligible role in mineralizing terrestrial carbon, according to metabolic analyses of lakes in the arid Yukon Flats Basin.
- Matthew J. Bogard
- , Catherine D. Kuhn
- & David E. Butman
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Editorial |
The complexities of wildfires
Wildfires are a natural part of many ecosystems, but they can become destructive and less predictable, especially when the system is perturbed. Human activities and climate change lead to interactions with fire dynamics that need our attention.
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News & Views |
Burning questions about ecosystems
Cumulative wildfires or prescribed burning produce different outcomes for the vegetation, suggest two long-term analyses of fire-affected ecosystems. Climate change and land management practices are altering how ecosystems function.
- Mark A. Cochrane