Ecology articles within Nature Geoscience

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  • 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 |

    The current mountain pine beetle infestation in forests in British Columbia ranks among the largest ecological disturbances recorded to date. An analysis of remote sensing data suggests that the resultant forest loss has led to a 1 °C rise in summertime surface temperatures.

    • H. Maness
    • , P. J. Kushner
    •  & I. Fung

  • Letter |

    Diatoms—unicellular algae that form substantial blooms in cold, nutrient-rich waters—are thought to be responsible for the export of marine silica to depth. An analysis of the elemental composition of marine cyanobacteria suggests that picocyanobacteria also accumulate significant quantities of silicon.

    • Stephen B. Baines
    • , Benjamin S. Twining
    •  & Hannah McDaniel

  • Commentary |

    River regulation and sea-level rise have damaged deltaic ecosystems as well as the sedimentological processes that support them. More scientific effort needs to be directed towards restoring land-building processes in our vanishing deltas.

    • Douglas A. Edmonds

  • Progress Article |

    Glacial ice covers around 10% of the Earth's continents. A review of the literature suggests that microbes living on glaciers and ice sheets are an integral part of both the glacial environment and the Earth's ecosystem.

    • Marek Stibal
    • , Marie Šabacká
    •  & Jakub Žárský

  • Letter |

    Life on land dates back at least 2.7 billion years, but the effects of this early terrestrial biosphere on biogeochemical cycling are poorly constrained. Marine sulphur data and geochemical modelling suggest that microbial pyrite weathering has transferred a substantial amount of sulphur to the oceans for at least 2.5 billion years.

    • Eva E. Stüeken
    • , David C. Catling
    •  & Roger Buick

  • Letter |

    Glaciers store and transform organic carbon, which, on release, could support downstream microbial life. An analysis of 26 glaciers in the European Alps suggests that a significant fraction of glacier organic matter is available for microbial consumption.

    • Gabriel A. Singer
    • , Christina Fasching
    •  & Tom J. Battin

  • Letter |

    Increased temperatures and declines in water availability have influenced the productivity of mountain forests over the past half century. An analysis of 25 years of observational and satellite data suggests that mid-elevation forest greenness is strongly regulated by snow accumulation.

    • Ernesto Trujillo
    • , Noah P. Molotch
    •  & Roger C. Bales

  • Letter |

    Boundary-layer clouds modify the near-surface climate and interact with the water and carbon cycles. Biophysical modelling suggests that rising atmospheric CO2 levels and the associated closing of plant stomata may suppress boundary-layer cloud formation in the mid-latitudes, and demonstrates how biological and physical aspects of the climate system are intertwined.

    • Jordi Vilà-Guerau de Arellano
    • , Chiel C. van Heerwaarden
    •  & Jos Lelieveld

  • News & Views |

    Sulphur cycling on early Earth is commonly linked to microbial activity. However, sulphur isotope values from 3.2–3.5-billion-year-old rocks indicate a central role for the breakdown of volcanic sulphur dioxide by ultraviolet radiation instead.

    • Boswell Wing

  • Letter |

    Before it was destroyed by slash and burn practices, Brazil’s Atlantic Forest was one of the largest tropical forest biomes on Earth. Measurements from a river draining the region suggest that significant quantities of black carbon generated by the burning continue to be exported from the former forest.

    • Thorsten Dittmar
    • , Carlos Eduardo de Rezende
    •  & Marcelo Correa Bernardes

  • Letter |

    In marine and freshwater ecosystems, anaerobic ammonium oxidation is coupled to nitrite reduction, and accounts for a significant fraction of ecosystem nitrogen loss. Laboratory incubations suggest that ammonium oxidation coupled to iron reduction contributes to nitrogen loss in anaerobic slurries of tropical forest soils.

    • Wendy H. Yang
    • , Karrie A. Weber
    •  & Whendee L. Silver

  • Editorial |

    The preservation of forests, both on land and in mangrove swamps, has received much attention in the move to protect biological carbon stores. Less conspicuous communities of organisms deserve some scrutiny, too.

  • News & Views |

    Mercury concentrations in the Arctic atmosphere exhibit a pronounced peak during summer. Model simulations suggest that this can be explained only if boreal rivers deliver large quantities of mercury to the Arctic Ocean.

    • Jeroen E. Sonke
    •  & Lars-Eric Heimbürger

  • News & Views |

    Lichens, cyanobacteria, mosses and algae coat many terrestrial surfaces. These biological covers turn out to play an important role in the global cycling of carbon and nitrogen.

    • Jayne Belnap

  • Letter |

    Many terrestrial surfaces are covered by photoautotrophic communities, which are capable of synthesizing their own food from inorganic substances using sunlight. According to an analysis of previously published data, these communities account for nearly half of the biological nitrogen fixation on land.

    • Wolfgang Elbert
    • , Bettina Weber
    •  & Ulrich Pöschl

  • Review Article |

    Over 90% of species were lost during the end-Permian mass extinction. A review of the fossil record shows that the rate of recovery was highly variable between different groups of organisms as a result of complex biotic interactions and repeated environmental perturbations.

    • Zhong-Qiang Chen
    •  & Michael J. Benton

  • 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

  • Article |

    Ocean acidification may seriously impair marine calcifying organisms. Emiliania huxleyi, the world’s single most important calcifying organism, may be able to evolve in response to ocean acidification conditions, according to laboratory selection experiments.

    • Kai T. Lohbeck
    • , Ulf Riebesell
    •  & Thorsten B. H. Reusch

  • 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

  • News & Views |

    Toxic heavy metals can accumulate in Earth's near surface to form ore deposits. Experimental and direct measurements of ore fluids reveal the efficient mobilization and deposition of uranium, implying potentially rapid formation of economic-grade ore.

    • Enikő Bali

  • Review Article |

    Throughout the Palaeozoic era, about 540 to 250 million years ago, plants colonized land and rapidly diversified. An analysis of the palaeontologic record shows that this diversification irrevocably altered the shape and form of fluvial systems.

    • Martin R. Gibling
    •  & Neil S. Davies

  • Letter |

    Humid montane tropical forests are often thought to contain low levels of bioavailable nitrogen. An analysis of the concentration and isotopic signature of nitrate in tropical montane forest streams suggests that these ecosystems may be rich in nitrogen.

    • E. N. Jack Brookshire
    • , Lars O. Hedin
    •  & John K. Jackson

  • 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 |

    Inland waters are increasingly recognized as important to the global carbon cycle. Detailed measurements in the United States suggest that significant amounts of carbon dioxide are released from streams and rivers, particularly the smaller ones.

    • John Melack

  • Editorial |

    The world is undergoing a phenomenally fast wave of urban growth. Research that can help tackle some of the ensuing problems is likely to originate in cities themselves.

  • 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

  • Letter |

    Two competing models have been suggested to explain the recovery of ecosystems from mass extinctions. An analysis of the recovery of marine pelagic communities from the Cretaceous–Palaeogene mass extinction supports a model of contingent recovery, rather than one based on trophic structure.

    • Pincelli M. Hull
    • , Richard D. Norris
    •  & Jonathan D. Schueth

  • Research Highlights |

    • Anna Armstrong

  • Article |

    Low levels of biologically available forms of nitrogen can limit phytoplankton growth. Isotopic analyses of seawater samples collected from the Sargasso Sea in the summer suggest that small phytoplankton obtain half of their nitrogen from upwelled nitrate.

    • Sarah E. Fawcett
    • , Michael W. Lomas
    •  & Daniel M. Sigman

  • News & Views |

    Forests affect climate not only by taking up carbon, but also by absorbing solar radiation and enhancing evaporation. In the tropics, the climate benefit of afforestation may be nearly double that expected from carbon budgets alone.

    • Richard A. Betts

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