Research Briefing |
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Article
| Open AccessCrevasse refreezing and signatures of retreat observed at Kamb Ice Stream grounding zone
Observations from a remotely operated underwater vehicle reveal crevasse refreezing and the fine-scale variability in ice and ocean structure at the Kamb Ice Stream grounding line in West Antarctica.
- J. D. Lawrence
- , P. M. Washam
- & B. E. Schmidt
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Article |
Comparable biophysical and biogeochemical feedbacks on warming from tropical moist forest degradation
Biophysical and biogeochemical effects of forest degradation cause comparable temperature increases in tropical rainforests, according to analyses of high-resolution satellite observations.
- Lei Zhu
- , Wei Li
- & Jingmeng Wang
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Article |
Decadal warming events extended into central North America during the last glacial period
Rapid warmings of >10 °C occurred repeatedly during the last glacial period in central North America, probably coinciding with Dansgaard–Oeschger warming events, according to an annually resolved speleothem oxygen isotope record and palaeoclimate simulations.
- C. J. Batchelor
- , S. A. Marcott
- & R. L. Edwards
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Research Briefing |
Satellite data shows Antarctic Peninsula glaciers flow faster in summer
Satellite observations reveal that glaciers on the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula flow 12% faster on average in summer than in winter. These increased flow speeds are attributed to a combination of seasonal atmospheric and oceanographic forcing mechanisms.
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Widespread seasonal speed-up of west Antarctic Peninsula glaciers from 2014 to 2021
Glaciers on the west Antarctic Peninsula flowed on average 12% faster during the summer compared with winter due to a mix of oceanic and atmospheric influences, according to an analysis of remote sensing data from 2014 to 2021.
- Benjamin J. Wallis
- , Anna E. Hogg
- & Michiel R. van den Broeke
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Perspective |
Diminishing lake area across the northern permafrost zone
Lake drainage due to permafrost thaw in the northern permafrost zone is occurring sooner than anticipated.
- Elizabeth E. Webb
- & Anna K. Liljedahl
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Article
| Open AccessQuantifying the physical processes leading to atmospheric hot extremes at a global scale
The occurrence of extremely hot days around the globe is the result of a regionally varying mix of physical processes—advective, adiabatic and diabatic warming—that influence upstream air masses, according to an analysis of the backward trajectories of air contributing to hot extremes.
- Matthias Röthlisberger
- & Lukas Papritz
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Editorial |
Unravelling ENSO complexity
Progress in understanding and modelling ENSO complexity provides a promising opportunity to both improve seasonal climate prediction and constrain future anthropogenic warming.
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Article |
Pacific shoreline erosion and accretion patterns controlled by El Niño/Southern Oscillation
The El Niño/Southern Oscillation drives coherent patterns of beach erosion and accretion around the Pacific Rim, according to analysis of satellite imagery covering over 8,300 km of sandy coastline.
- Kilian Vos
- , Mitchell D. Harley
- & Kristen D. Splinter
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Review Article |
Coupling and interactions across the Martian whole atmosphere system
Spacecraft observations and climate modelling have revealed how atmospheric waves, dust storms and atmospheric loss processes are coupled throughout the atmosphere of Mars.
- Erdal Yiğit
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Article |
Reduced phosphorus availability in paddy soils under atmospheric CO2 enrichment
Plant-available phosphorus declines in paddy soils as atmospheric CO2 increases, according to long-term free air carbon dioxide enrichment experiments of rice plants.
- Yu Wang
- , Yuanyuan Huang
- & Chunwu Zhu
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Article |
Abrupt episode of mid-Cretaceous ocean acidification triggered by massive volcanism
Volcanic activity led to ocean acidification at the onset of Oceanic Anoxic Event 2, which then persisted for 600,000 years due to biogeochemical feedbacks, according to marine osmium isotope and carbonate sedimentation records offshore from southwest Australia.
- Matthew M. Jones
- , Bradley B. Sageman
- & Richard W. Hobbs
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Article
| Open AccessAgricultural drought over water-scarce Central Asia aggravated by internal climate variability
The interplay between anthropogenic forcing and internal variability associated with the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation has exacerbated agricultural droughts over southern Central Asia since 1992, according to large ensemble simulations.
- Jie Jiang
- & Tianjun Zhou
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Article |
Episodic dynamic change linked to damage on the Thwaites Glacier Ice Tongue
Observations and modelling of the Thwaites Glacier Ice Tongue link episodic changes in ice speed to fracturing between 2015 and 2021 and show these changes to be reversible over one- to two-year timescales.
- Trystan Surawy-Stepney
- , Anna E. Hogg
- & Benjamin J. Davison
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Oxygen priming induced by elevated CO2 reduces carbon accumulation and methane emissions in coastal wetlands
Elevated atmospheric CO2 reduces soil carbon accumulation and methane emissions from wetlands by changing soil redox potential resulting from increased oxygen fluxes produced by plants, according to a four-year field experiment.
- Genevieve L. Noyce
- , Alexander J. Smith
- & J. Patrick Megonigal
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Article
| Open AccessEpipelagic nitrous oxide production offsets carbon sequestration by the biological pump
Substantial nitrous oxide production in the epipelagic zone of the subtropical ocean partially offsets carbon sequestration by the marine biological pump, according to observations from the South China Sea and subtropical northwest Pacific.
- Xianhui S. Wan
- , Hua-Xia Sheng
- & Shuh-Ji Kao
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Article |
Siberian carbon sink reduced by forest disturbances
Carbon sequestration by Siberian forests has been low over the past decade due to disturbances that have decreased live biomass and increased dead wood, according to passive microwave observations.
- Lei Fan
- , Jean-Pierre Wigneron
- & Rasmus Fensholt
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Article |
Early Pleistocene East Antarctic temperature in phase with local insolation
East Antarctic surface temperature co-varied with local insolation in the Early Pleistocene, leading to the cancellation of global orbital ice sheet forcing from precession, according to temperature proxies and insolation-related gas ratios in ice cores.
- Yuzhen Yan
- , Andrei V. Kurbatov
- & John A. Higgins
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Editorial |
Phytoplankton in the middle
Marine phytoplankton both follow and actively influence the environment they inhabit. Unpacking the complex ecological and biogeochemical roles of these tiny organisms can help reveal the workings of the Earth system.
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Article |
West Antarctic ice volume variability paced by obliquity until 400,000 years ago
The advance and retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet were primarily paced by 41,000-year-long obliquity cycles, not longer eccentricity cycles, until 400,000 years ago, according to sedimentological and palaeomagnetic records from the Ross Embayment.
- Christian Ohneiser
- , Christina L. Hulbe
- & Rachel A. Worthington
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Article
| Open AccessGlobal apparent temperature sensitivity of terrestrial carbon turnover modulated by hydrometeorological factors
Analyses of the temperature sensitivity of terrestrial carbon turnover suggest that hydrometeorology and temperature control the spatial variability in carbon turnover times globally.
- Naixin Fan
- , Markus Reichstein
- & Nuno Carvalhais
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Article |
Mineral-catalysed formation of marine NO and N2O on the anoxic early Earth
Marine emissions of N2O could have sustained an early Archaean atmosphere of 0.8–6.0 ppb N2O without a protective ozone layer, according to mineral incubations combined with diffusion and photochemical modelling.
- Steffen Buessecker
- , Hiroshi Imanaka
- & Hinsby Cadillo-Quiroz
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Article
| Open AccessHolocene ice-stream shutdown and drainage basin reconfiguration in northeast Greenland
Two ice streams—indicated by buried folds—extending into the interior of the northeastern Greenland ice sheet deactivated in the Holocene as the drainage basin flow regime reorganized southwards, according to an analysis of radio-echo sounding data.
- Steven Franke
- , Paul D. Bons
- & Daniela Jansen
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News & Views |
Plants water the planet
Greening of the planet has increased global surface water availability, but vegetation changes can have diverse local and remote impacts across different regions.
- Arie Staal
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Article
| Open AccessCarbon dioxide sink in the Arctic Ocean from cross-shelf transport of dense Barents Sea water
Accounting for deep, cross-shelf carbon export into the Nansen Basin increases the carbon sequestration of the Barents Sea region of the Arctic Ocean by some 30%, according to numerical modelling supported by observational data.
- Andreas Rogge
- , Markus Janout
- & Anya M. Waite
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Perspective |
Potential impacts of atmospheric microplastics and nanoplastics on cloud formation processes
Microplastics and nanoplastics may affect cloud formation processes by acting as ice-nucleating particles and cloud condensation nuclei.
- Mischa Aeschlimann
- , Guangyu Li
- & Denise M. Mitrano
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Annual variations in phytoplankton biomass driven by small-scale physical processes
Annual variations of phytoplankton biomass can be explained by processes acting on small spatio-temporal scales, according to a global analysis of satellite observations of sea surface chlorophyll and temperature from 1999 to 2018.
- M. G. Keerthi
- , C. J. Prend
- & M. Lévy
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Research Briefing |
Dust emission increases following large wildfires
Satellite measurements show that dust emission is enhanced following large wildfires, producing considerable dust loadings for days to weeks over normally dust-free regions. These sequential fire and dust extremes will likely become more frequent and severe under global warming, having increased societal and ecological impacts.
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Global water availability boosted by vegetation-driven changes in atmospheric moisture transport
Vegetation change over the past two decades has limited the decline in global water availability by enhancing rainfall over evapotranspiration, according to analysis of observation-based atmospheric moisture transport data.
- Jiangpeng Cui
- , Xu Lian
- & Shilong Piao
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Article
| Open AccessMillennial-scale climate variability over land overprinted by ocean temperature fluctuations
Temperature variability over land is enhanced by ocean temperature fluctuations on millennial timescales, with implications for regional-scale climate change, according to an analysis of Northern Hemisphere proxy records and observations.
- R. Hébert
- , U. Herzschuh
- & T. Laepple
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Research Briefing |
Hidden rivers under Antarctica impact ice flow and stability
Large channels of meltwater snake beneath the ice in the Weddell Sea region of Antarctica. This water affects the speed of ice flow above and the melt rate of the ice when it reaches the ocean, having a direct role in the response of Antarctica to climate change.
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Antarctic basal environment shaped by high-pressure flow through a subglacial river system
A 400-km-long subglacial dendritic river system in Antarctica transports freshwater at high pressures, potentially enhancing ice flow and ice-shelf melt, according to numerical modelling and geophysical data.
- C. F. Dow
- , N. Ross
- & M. J. Siegert
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Active Nordic Seas deep-water formation during the last glacial maximum
Deep-water formation in the Nordic Seas that helps to drive the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation was vigorous during the last glacial maximum, much as it is today, and declined during deglaciation, according to neodymium isotope records.
- Christina S. Larkin
- , Mohamed M. Ezat
- & Alex M. Piotrowski
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News & Views |
Methane’s unknowns better known
Submarine gas hydrates in temperate and tropical oceans are probably not large sources of atmospheric methane emissions at present, suggests a study of methane sources along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the USA.
- Euan G. Nisbet
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Article |
Negligible atmospheric release of methane from decomposing hydrates in mid-latitude oceans
Methane hydrates decomposing beneath mid-latitude ocean basins are unlikely to be a source of atmospheric methane, according to direct measurements of dissolved methane in the water column from seep fields along the US Atlantic and Pacific margins.
- DongJoo Joung
- , Carolyn Ruppel
- & John D. Kessler
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Article |
Enhanced dust emission following large wildfires due to vegetation disturbance
Enhanced dust emissions are associated with more than half of the global large wildfire events occurring between 2003 and 2020, according to analyses of satellite measurements of aerosol abundance following more than 150,000 global wildfires.
- Yan Yu
- & Paul Ginoux
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Research Briefing |
Air temperature — not just ocean warming — affects submarine melting of Greenland glaciers
Melting of the edges of the Greenland ice sheet by the ocean since 1979 is — counterintuitively — controlled almost as much by air temperature as by ocean temperature.
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Climate-driven decoupling of wetland and upland biomass trends on the mid-Atlantic coast
Carbon loss from coastal wetlands in eastern North America due to sea-level rise is being offset by warming-driven greening of adjacent upland forests, with a net increase in carbon stored in coastal vegetation, according to an analysis of remote sensing data.
- Yaping Chen
- & Matthew L. Kirwan
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News & Views |
Reversing Earth’s carbon engine
Enhanced formation of clay in marine sediments in the lead up to the end-Permian mass extinction likely pulled the Earth back into a hot, high-CO2 state similar to that of the Precambrian.
- Hana Jurikova
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News & Views |
Cycling carbon with coccolithophores
Cellular modelling and geochemical analyses reveal that a dominant group of phytoplankton changed their carbonate production as atmospheric CO2 levels declined from peak levels in the warm early Eocene, hinting at a positive feedback in the global carbon cycle.
- Rosie M. Sheward
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Perspective |
Orange hydrogen is the new green
Enhancing natural subsurface hydrogen production through water injection could make a substantial contribution to achieving the low-carbon energy transition that is required to limit global warming.
- F. Osselin
- , C. Soulaine
- & M. Pichavant
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Article
| Open AccessSubmarine melting of glaciers in Greenland amplified by atmospheric warming
Atmospheric variability can amplify ocean-driven submarine melting of marine-terminating glaciers in Greenland, according to an analysis of observations and models from 1979 to 2018.
- D. A. Slater
- & F. Straneo
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Article
| Open AccessLong-range predictability of extratropical climate and the length of day
Ensemble forecasts from a dynamical model suggest that fluctuations in atmospheric angular momentum and the length of day can be predicted over a year in advance, thereby providing a source of long-range climate predictability.
- A. A. Scaife
- , L. Hermanson
- & D. Smith
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Early and late phases of the Permian–Triassic mass extinction marked by different atmospheric CO2 regimes
The first pulse of the Permian–Triassic mass extinction was driven by intense weathering, suppressing CO2, while food web collapse and prolonged warming drove the second pulse, according to a high-resolution record from the Shangsi section, China
- Jiaheng Shen
- , Yi Ge Zhang
- & Ann Pearson
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Substantial influence of vapour buoyancy on tropospheric air temperature and subtropical cloud
A combination of theory, reanalysis and model simulations suggests that tropospheric temperature and cloud cover are strongly influenced by vapour buoyancy, an effect currently neglected in some leading global climate models.
- Da Yang
- , Wenyu Zhou
- & Seth D. Seidel
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Article
| Open AccessPleistocene climate variability in eastern Africa influenced hominin evolution
Over the past 620,000 years, three distinct phases of climate variability in eastern Africa coincided with shifts in hominin evolution and dispersal, according to an analysis of environmental proxy records from a core collected in the Chew Bahir basin of Ethiopia.
- Verena Foerster
- , Asfawossen Asrat
- & Martin H. Trauth
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Climatic and tectonic drivers of late Oligocene Antarctic ice volume
Retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet during the late Oligocene was caused primarily by a tectonically driven marine transgression, according to a compilation of Ross Sea surface temperature estimates throughout the Cenozoic.
- B. Duncan
- , R. McKay
- & J. Bendle
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Brief Communication
| Open AccessSubstantial contribution of iodine to Arctic ozone destruction
Iodine chemistry plays a more important role than bromine chemistry in tropospheric ozone losses in the Arctic, according to ship-based observations of halogen oxides from March to October 2020.
- Nuria Benavent
- , Anoop S. Mahajan
- & Alfonso Saiz-Lopez