Ecology articles within Nature Geoscience

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  • News & Views |

    Plants influence geomorphology. Research on salt marshes suggests that feedbacks between geomorphic processes and life-history traits of plants produce species-specific signatures in the organization of biogeomorphic landscapes.

    • Dov Corenblit

  • Editorial |

    Marine protected areas can support ecosystem resilience in the face of environmental stress, but only up to a point.

  • News & Views |

    Tall trees are more resilient to drought than short trees, suggests a comparison of the sensitivity of photosynthesis to soil moisture in Amazon forests.

    • Paulo Brando

  • Article |

    Tall trees are less sensitive to variation in precipitation than short trees, according to analyses of photosynthetic sensitivity to drought in tall and short Amazon forests. The results demonstrate higher resilience of tall trees to drought.

    • Francesco Giardina
    • , Alexandra G. Konings
    •  & Pierre Gentine

  • News & Views |

    Higher stream temperatures as the climate warms could lead to lower ecosystem productivity and higher CO2 emissions in streams. An analysis of stream ecosystems finds that such changes will be greatest in the warmest and most productive streams.

    • James B. Heffernan

  • News & Views |

    West African farmers adjust tree cover to realize the co-benefits of agroforestry, according to analyses of remote sensing data.

    • Niall P. Hanan

  • Article |

    Biocrust coverage of soils could decrease by 25–40% within 65 years, due to climate and land-use changes. Biocrusts, such as lichens and algae, cover 12% of Earth’s land surface but environmental modelling suggests that they are vulnerable to change.

    • Emilio Rodriguez-Caballero
    • , Jayne Belnap
    •  & Bettina Weber

  • News & Views |

    Rising oxygen levels may have facilitated the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event according to a reconstruction of atmospheric oxygen concentrations.

    • Alycia L. Stigall

  • Article |

    An increase in biodiversity 450 million years ago coincided with a rise in atmospheric oxygen concentrations, suggests a geochemical analysis. Oxygen availability may have thus helped spur the radiation alongside climatic cooling.

    • Cole T. Edwards
    • , Matthew R. Saltzman
    •  & David A. Fike

  • Article |

    Subglacial lakes contain active microbial ecosystems capable of cycling methane. In a subglacial lake in West Antarctica, methane that is produced is subsequently consumed, limiting the potential for methane emissions during lake drainage.

    • Alexander B. Michaud
    • , John E. Dore
    •  & John C. Priscu

  • Article |

    Microbes are expected to prefer substrates with the highest energy yield. Laboratory experiments demonstrate that a metabolically flexible archaeon exhibits preference for and greater growth from lower energy substrates.

    • Maximiliano J. Amenabar
    • , Everett L. Shock
    •  & Eric S. Boyd

  • Article |

    Dissolved inorganic carbon is buried in dryland basins that do not drain to the sea. Based on measurements of sediment chemistry in twelve of these sites, closed basins are estimated to store 0.15 Pg of dissolved inorganic carbon annually.

    • Yu Li
    • , Chengqi Zhang
    •  & Wangting Ye

  • News & Views |

    Phosphorus loading can cause eutrophication of lakes. Analyses of lake chemistry in China reveal that policies have led to lower phosphorus levels overall, but increasing trends in some lakes suggest that expanded policies may be needed.

    • Jessica Corman

  • Article |

    Understanding biosphere–atmosphere feedback loops can improve forecasts of climate and vegetation resilience. Analyses of satellite observations reveal that feedbacks are strong in regions that determine the net terrestrial carbon balance.

    • Julia K. Green
    • , Alexandra G. Konings
    •  & Pierre Gentine

  • Article |

    Climate change is expected to release carbon stored in permafrost soils. Sampling of sites across the Tibetan Plateau in the early 2000s and early 2010s reveals increased carbon stocks in shallow soils, which may offset losses from deeper soils.

    • Jinzhi Ding
    • , Leiyi Chen
    •  & Yuanhe Yang

  • Article |

    Anoxic carbon decomposition is thought to depend on the energetics of electron acceptors. Mass spectrometry measurements of floodplain sediments reveal that the energetics of organic compounds can also determine whether they are decomposed.

    • Kristin Boye
    • , Vincent Noël
    •  & Scott Fendorf

  • Article |

    Glacial systems are important sources of dissolved organic carbon to downstream ecosystems. Observations of carbon dynamics on the Greenland ice sheet reveal substantial melt season production and export of microbial dissolved organic carbon.

    • Michaela Musilova
    • , Martyn Tranter
    •  & Alexandre M. Anesio

  • News & Views |

    Freezing and thawing of soils leads to large pulses of nitrous oxide release. An empirical model shows that cropland winter nitrous oxide emissions are substantial, calling for a revision of the global nitrous oxide budget.

    • Klaus Butterbach-Bahl
    •  & Benjamin Wolf

  • 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

  • News & Views |

    Dissolved iron is mysteriously pervasive in deep ocean hydrothermal plumes. An analysis of gas, metals and particles from a 4,000 km plume transect suggests that dissolved iron is maintained by rapid and reversible exchanges with sinking particles.

    • William B. Homoky

  • 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

  • Article |

    Reconstructions of Holocene summer temperatures differ between models and vegetation-based proxies. A quantitative reconstruction for the Mediterranean region based on fossil midge assemblages suggests warm summers, in line with climate models.

    • Stéphanie Samartin
    • , Oliver Heiri
    •  & Willy Tinner

  • 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

  • News & Views |

    Organic carbon decomposition in anoxic marine sediments was thought to be dominated by bacteria, but experimental data and microbial culture studies now show that microalgae buried in coastal sands may also play an important role in carbon turnover.

    • Alexandra Rao

  • News & Views |

    Large quantities of organic carbon are stored in the ocean, but its biogeochemical behaviour is elusive. Size–age–composition relations now quantify the production of tiny organic molecules as a major pathway for carbon sequestration.

    • Rainer M. W. Amon

  • News & Views |

    Large glacial–interglacial fluctuations occurred during the late Palaeozoic. Geochemical and fossil data show these cycles were marked by coincident shifts in the carbon cycle and terrestrial biosphere.

    • Timothy S. Myers

  • 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

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