Climate sciences articles within Nature Geoscience

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  • Comment |

    Extreme rainfall events are often linked to climate change based on simple thermodynamic arguments, but complex dynamic processes also play a role. Scientists have a responsibility to ensure they provide accurate information to the media and public.

    • Andrew D. King
    • , Kimberley J. Reid
    •  & Kate R. Saunders

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Atmospheric observations show the presence of shallow mesoscale circulations in the North Atlantic trades and demonstrate their widespread influence on atmospheric moisture and, consequently, clouds.

    • Geet George
    • , Bjorn Stevens
    •  & Ann Kristin Naumann

  • Article |

    Atmospheric sulfate aerosols—which could cool the atmosphere—were formed in less acidic cloud water in continental interiors in pre-industrial time than today, according to a triple oxygen isotope analysis of sulfate in weathering carbonates.

    • Yongbo Peng
    • , Shohei Hattori
    •  & Huiming Bao

  • Research Briefing |

    Icequake observations were combined with an analytical friction model to measure friction and slip at the bed of an Antarctic ice stream. Friction and slip are found to be highly variable in space and time, controlled by higher-than-expected normal stresses at the ice–bed interface.

  • Brief Communication
    | Open Access

    Analysis of changes in the Earth’s rotation in the Precambrian suggests that day length stabilized at 19 h for 1 billion years due to tidal resonance, which may have been linked to a relatively quiescent period of tectonic activity and biological evolution.

    • Ross N. Mitchell
    •  & Uwe Kirscher

  • Editorial |

    Temporarily overshooting climate targets is a distinct possibility given our current emissions trajectory. It is crucial that we understand which of the associated impacts are reversible, and to what extent.

  • Research Briefing |

    Rock organic carbon from glacial runoff, once assumed to be non-bioavailable, is identified as a substrate used by marine sedimentary microbes. This challenges the traditional view that rock organic carbon bypasses the active carbon cycle and indicates an additional source of fossil greenhouse-gas emissions on geological, or possibly even shorter, timescales.

  • Article |

    The formation of continental crust may have trapped —and thus not degassed—substantial amounts of magmatic nitrogen over Earth’s history, according to geochemical analyses of igneous rocks from the Hekla volcanic system in Iceland.

    • Toby J. Boocock
    • , Sami Mikhail
    •  & Eva E. Stüeken

  • Editorial |

    Ecosystems have long been shaped by phosphorus limitation. We need to better understand how natural and human-caused shifts in the phosphorus cycle disrupt the Earth system.

  • Article |

    The Arctic Ocean’s Beaufort Gyre has transitioned to a state where the freshwater content has plateaued and the cold halocline layer has thinned, as a result of variation in the regional wind forcing.

    • Peigen Lin
    • , Robert S. Pickart
    •  & Takashi Kikuchi

  • Research Briefing |

    Analogue experiments show that powerful eruption columns deliver material to the sea surface and seabed in periodic annular sedimentation waves. Depending on the water depth, the impact and spread of these waves at the sea surface and seabed can excite tsunamis, drive radial pyroclastic density currents, and build concentric terraces.

  • News & Views |

    Deep overturning circulation in the North Atlantic strongly influences the global climate system. Combined proxy record compilations and modelling refine our understanding of the behaviour of this circulation over the last 20,000 years.

    • K. Halimeda Kilbourne

  • Research Briefing |

    Subaqueous glacier mass losses are not accounted for by traditional geodetic mass balance calculations. Estimates based on proglacial lake volume changes revealed that the mass loss of glaciers terminating into lakes in the greater Himalaya during 2000−2020 was previously underestimated by approximately 6.5%, with the largest underestimation in the central Himalaya.

  • News & Views |

    The Montreal Protocol has successfully guided the world’s transition from chlorofluorcarbons that deplete ozone to hydrofluorocarbons that pose no direct threat to the ozone layer. A study suggests that a recent rise in atmospheric chlorofluorcarbons is linked to the inadvertent release of these gases during the production of hydrofluorocarbons.

    • Ross J. Salawitch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation was shallow and weak during the Last Glacial Maximum, and water masses took time to adjust to circulation shifts during the Last Deglaciation, according to a reassessment of proxy records and model simulations.

    • Frerk Pöppelmeier
    • , Aurich Jeltsch-Thömmes
    •  & Thomas F. Stocker

  • Article |

    Levels of five chlorofluorocarbons rose in the atmosphere from 2010 to 2020 despite their production being banned by the Montreal Protocol, probably arising as by-products of hydrofluorocarbon production, according to analysis of abundance and emissions data.

    • Luke M. Western
    • , Martin K. Vollmer
    •  & Johannes C. Laube

  • News & Views |

    The El Niño Southern Oscillation strongly impacts climate, but its variability remains difficult to predict. A conceptual model based on shifting circulation patterns offers a simple explanation for this complex behaviour.

    • Antonietta Capotondi

  • News & Views |

    A field-based study of 4.5 years of whole-soil warming reveals that warming stimulates loss of structurally complex organic carbon at the same rate as that for bulk organic carbon in subsoil.

    • Ji Chen
    • , Yiqi Luo
    •  & Robert L. Sinsabaugh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Structurally complex polymeric compounds, such as pyrogenic carbon, that have been previously considered long-term carbon sinks in soils can rapidly be lost by decomposition at warmer temperatures, according to 4.5 years of whole-soil warming experiments.

    • Cyrill U. Zosso
    • , Nicholas O. E. Ofiti
    •  & Michael W. I. Schmidt

  • Article |

    Meltwater discharge to the mid-Holocene North Atlantic disrupted decadal climate variability, suggesting future melting on Greenland may hinder climate predictability in the region, according to an annually laminated lake-sediment record and transient model simulations.

    • Celia Martin-Puertas
    • , Armand Hernandez
    •  & Francisco Javier Rodríguez-Tovar

  • Research Briefing |

    Satellite observations show that 24.1% of tropical moist forests are degraded. In addition to the warming effects of the release of carbon from biomass, satellite data suggest that degradation could also increase the land surface temperatures of the affected regions. This biophysical feedback could hinder forest restoration initiatives.

  • Research Briefing |

    A remotely-operated underwater vehicle was used to map the ice, ocean, and seafloor conditions near the point where the floating Ross Ice Shelf meets the seafloor, also known as the grounding line. The study identified refreezing crevasses and geomorphological signatures of past grounding line retreat.

  • Research Briefing |

    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.

  • Article
    | Open Access

    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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