Biooceanography articles within Nature Geoscience

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  • Article |

    Internal waves can relieve coral reef heat stress, according to an analysis that isolates the effect at different depths using a compilation of high-resolution temperature records.

    • Alex S. J. Wyatt
    • , James J. Leichter
    •  & Toshi Nagata

  • Article |

    Dust-borne nutrients can enhance productivity in the surface ocean. Two years of sediment trap data reveal that dust enhances carbon export to depth by increasing surface nitrogen fixation, productivity and carbon sinking rates in the North Atlantic.

    • Katsiaryna Pabortsava
    • , Richard S. Lampitt
    •  & E. Malcolm S. Woodward

  • Article |

    Zinc and silicon distributions co-vary in much of the global oceans. Observations and numerical modelling suggest that this co-variation can arise in the absence of mechanistic links between the uptake of zinc and silicate.

    • Derek Vance
    • , Susan H. Little
    •  & Rob Middag

  • News & Views |

    The dynamics of polar marine ecosystems are poorly understood. A laser-based space-borne sensor captures annual cycles of phytoplankton biomass in seasonally ice-free polar waters, and provides clues on how growth drives these cycles.

    • Marcel Babin

  • Progress Article |

    Marine macroalgae are dominant primary producers in coastal zones. A review of the published literature suggests that macroalgae may play an important role in carbon sequestration.

    • Dorte Krause-Jensen
    •  & Carlos M. Duarte

  • News & Views |

    Natural seafloor hydrocarbon seeps are responsible for roughly half of the oil released into the ocean. As these oils and gases rise to the surface, they transport nutrients upwards, benefiting phytoplankton in the upper sunlit layer.

    • Michael Behrenfeld

  • Letter |

    Chloride is abundant in oceans, but is relatively unreactive. Spectroscopic imaging reveals the presence of a chloride sink in organochlorine compounds that can be produced abiotically or by phytoplankton.

    • Alessandra C. Leri
    • , Lawrence M. Mayer
    •  & Austin B. Gellis

  • News & Views |

    Deep abyssal clay sediments in organic-poor regions of the ocean present challenging conditions for life. Techniques for identifying cells at extremely low concentrations demonstrate that aerobic microbes are found throughout these deep clays in as much of 37% of the global ocean.

    • Beth N. Orcutt

  • News & Views |

    Shorelines are vulnerable to the destructive waves and water levels of increasingly frequent extreme storm events. Wave tank experiments demonstrate that salt marsh vegetation dissipates wave energy and withstands extreme storm conditions.

    • Sergio Fagherazzi

  • Letter |

    Salt marshes protect coastlines against waves. Wave flume experiments show that marsh vegetation causes substantial wave dissipation and prevents erosion of the underlying surface, even during extreme storm surge conditions.

    • Iris Möller
    • , Matthias Kudella
    •  & Stefan Schimmels

  • Commentary |

    Particles of organic matter in the ocean host diverse communities of microorganisms. These particles may serve as hotspots of bacterial gene exchange, creating opportunities for microbial evolution.

    • Frank J. Stewart

  • Review Article |

    The Arctic is warming faster than any other region in the world. The resultant large-scale shift in sea ice cover could increase oceanic emissions of dimethylsulphide, a climate-relevant trace gas generated by ice algae and phytoplankton.

    • M. Levasseur

  • Review Article |

    The leakage of cold, methane-rich fluids from subsurface reservoirs to the sea floor sustains some of the richest ecosystems on the sea bed. These cold-seep communities consume around two orders of magnitude more oxygen than the surrounding sea floor as a result of the microbial consumption of seep methane.

    • Antje Boetius
    •  & Frank Wenzhöfer

  • Review Article |

    Coastal upwelling regimes associated with eastern boundary currents are the most biologically productive ecosystems in the ocean. A suite of human-induced changes could perturb primary production and nutrient cycling in these highly dynamic systems.

    • Douglas G. Capone
    •  & David A. Hutchins

  • Review Article |

    The flux of carbon out of the ocean surface is not sufficient to meet the energy demands of microbes in the dark ocean. A review of the literature suggests that non-sinking particles and microbes that convert inorganic carbon into organic matter could help to meet this deep-ocean energy demand.

    • Gerhard J. Herndl
    •  & Thomas Reinthaler

  • Article |

    Mercury enters marine food webs in the form of microbially generated monomethylmercury. An analysis of the mercury isotopic composition of nine species of North Pacific fish suggests that microbial production of monomethylmercury below the surface mixed layer contributes significantly to the mercury contamination of marine food webs.

    • Joel D. Blum
    • , Brian N. Popp
    •  & Marcus W. Johnson

  • Letter |

    Submarine seeps release substantial amounts of methane into the overlying water column at continental margins, leading to the formation of calcium carbonate deposits. Analyses of methane-derived carbonate build-ups on the Nile Delta suggest that their formation coincided with the development of deep-water anoxic or suboxic conditions.

    • Germain Bayon
    • , Stéphanie Dupré
    •  & Gert J. de Lange

  • Letter |

    Multi-decadal variability in coral growth rates has been documented throughout the Caribbean over the past 150–200 years. Analyses of observational and model data suggest that anthropogenic aerosols were a key driver of variations in coral growth in the western Caribbean in the second half of the twentieth century.

    • Lester Kwiatkowski
    • , Peter M. Cox
    •  & Hector M. Guzman

  • Review Article |

    Photosynthetic microbes, collectively termed phytoplankton, are responsible for the vast majority of primary production in marine waters. A synthesis of the latest research suggests that two broad nutrient limitation regimes — characterized by nitrogen and iron limitation, respectively — dictate phytoplankton abundance and activity in the global ocean.

    • C. M. Moore
    • , M. M. Mills
    •  & O. Ulloa

  • News & Views |

    Scarce food supplies could hinder biological activity in the ocean's depths. However, measurements at Mariana Trench point to an unexpectedly active microbial community in the deepest seafloor setting on the planet.

    • Eric Epping

  • News & Views |

    Iron limits plankton productivity in large regions of the global ocean. Analyses of meltwater from the Greenland ice sheet suggests that subglacial weathering delivers significant quantities of biologically available iron to the North Atlantic Ocean.

    • Rob Raiswell

  • Letter |

    Coccolithophores are a key component of the oceanic food web, and may be sensitive to environmental changes. Modern experiments and an assessment of the fossil record suggest that the response of individual species to a period of ocean acidification in the past may have affected the evolutionary success of these species’ lineages.

    • Samantha J. Gibbs
    • , Alex J. Poulton
    •  & Cherry Newsam

  • Feature |

    Ocean acidification, caused by the uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide, is a significant stressor to marine life. Ulf Riebesell charts the rapid rise in ocean acidification research, from the discovery of its adverse effects to its entry into the political consciousness.

    • Ulf Riebesell

  • Letter |

    Over 90% of marine species were lost during the end-Permian extinction. Fossil data show that the crisis in China was marked by two distinct phases of marine extinction separated by a 180,000-year recovery period.

    • Haijun Song
    • , Paul B. Wignall
    •  & Hongfu Yin

  • News & Views |

    Ocean acidification is predicted to harm the ocean's shell-building organisms over the coming centuries. Sea butterflies, an ecologically important group of molluscs in the Arctic and Southern oceans, are already suffering the effects.

    • Justin B. Ries

  • Letter |

    As a result of ocean acidification, aragonite may become undersaturated by 2050 in the upper layers of the Southern Ocean. Analyses of sea snail specimens, extracted live from the Southern Ocean in January and February 2008, show that the shells of these organisms are already dissolving.

    • N. Bednaršek
    • , G. A. Tarling
    •  & E. J. Murphy

  • 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

  • News & Views |

    The prediction of marine microbial responses to ocean acidification is a key challenge for marine biologists. Experimental evolution offers a powerful tool for understanding the forces that will shape tomorrow's microbial communities under global change.

    • Sinéad Collins

  • 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

  • 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

  • News & Views |

    Phytoplankton form the base of the marine food web, but their growth in nutrient-depleted surface waters has remained a puzzle. Two complementary studies suggest that ocean eddies help to control phytoplankton growth and distribution in unexpected ways.

    • Richard G. Williams

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