Environmental chemistry articles within Nature Geoscience

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  • News & Views |

    Increasing groundwater extraction supports hundreds of millions of people across the Indo-Gangetic Basin. Data suggests that despite the increase in withdrawals, groundwater depletion is localized and the most widespread threat is contamination.

    • Scott Fendorf
    •  & Shawn G. Benner

  • Editorial |

    Forests are important for the global carbon cycle, and for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. However, the role forests play in carbon sequestration should not eclipse everything else we value them for.

  • News & Views |

    Ethane emissions can lead to ozone pollution. Measurements at 49 sites show that long-declining atmospheric ethane concentrations started rising in 2010 in the Northern Hemisphere, largely due to greater oil and gas production in the USA.

    • Hannele Hakola
    •  & Heidi Hellén

  • Editorial |

    Billions of years ago, high atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations were vital to life's tenuous foothold on Earth. Despite new constraints, the composition and evolution of Earth's early atmosphere remains hazy.

  • Letter |

    Sulfur dioxide is a key air contaminant. A satellite-based emissions inventory reveals a number of hitherto unknown sources, with a cluster around the Persian Gulf, and identifies large discrepancies with conventional inventories in some regions.

    • Chris A. McLinden
    • , Vitali Fioletov
    •  & Joanna Joiner

  • News & Views |

    Semivolatile organic compounds from fossil fuels or incomplete combustion are ubiquitous. A suite of circumglobal measurements of their oceanic and atmospheric concentrations reveals large carbon fluxes through the deposition of these compounds.

    • Christopher M. Reddy

  • Letter |

    The global transport and fate of semivolatile aromatic hydrocarbons and their relevance for the carbon cycle are poorly quantified. Global measurements in paired atmospheric and ocean samples suggest that their contribution is substantial.

    • Belén González-Gaya
    • , María-Carmen Fernández-Pinos
    •  & Jordi Dachs

  • Letter |

    Airborne organic particles affect Earth’s climate. Imaging of particles after rain events and experimental irrigation shows that water drop impaction of soils generates solid organic particles, with impacts on clouds and radiation absorption.

    • Bingbing Wang
    • , Tristan H. Harder
    •  & Alexander Laskin

  • News & Views |

    Phosphorus is essential for food production, but it is also a key cause of eutrophication. Estimates of phosphorus flux for the past 40–70 years reveal that large river basins can experience phases of phosphorus accumulation and depletion.

    • Julien Némery
    •  & Josette Garnier

  • Letter |

    Microbes can mineralize metals such as gold. Observations of platinum-group mineral grains and incubation experiments reveal that bacteria can also transform these metals, which could affect their mobility in surface environments.

    • Frank Reith
    • , Carla M. Zammit
    •  & Joël Brugger

  • News & Views |

    Economic-grade deposits of copper are hard to find. The aluminium content of magmatic rocks at the surface may provide an indicator of ore deposits buried deep below.

    • Jeremy Richards

  • 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

  • News & Views |

    Humanity's nitrogen pollution footprint has increased by a factor of six since the 1930s. A global analysis reveals that a quarter of this nitrogen pollution is associated with the production of internationally traded products.

    • James N. Galloway
    •  & Allison M. Leach

  • News & Views |

    Mercury is a toxic element with no known biological function. Laboratory studies demonstrate that mercury can be beneficial to microbial growth by acting as an electron acceptor during photosynthesis.

    • Jeffra K. Schaefer

  • Letter |

    Streamflow is a mixture of precipitation of various ages. Oxygen isotope data suggests that a third of global river discharge is sourced from rainfall within the past few months, which accounts for less than 0.1% of global groundwater.

    • Scott Jasechko
    • , James W. Kirchner
    •  & Jeffrey J. McDonnell

  • Letter |

    Bacteria have been shown to be involved in the reduction of HgII to elemental mercury. Laboratory experiments with HgII and different carbon sources reveal that purple bacteria can use HgII as an electron acceptor, promoting bacterial growth.

    • D. S. Grégoire
    •  & A. J. Poulain

  • Letter |

    Aquatic ecosystems are important sources of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. Measurements of nitrous oxide concentrations from 321 rivers, lakes and ponds in Canada reveal that some boreal aquatic systems can act as net nitrous oxide sinks.

    • C. Soued
    • , P. A. del Giorgio
    •  & R. Maranger

  • Editorial |

    The International Year of Soils draws attention to our vital dependence on the fertile crumb beneath our feet. Soil is renewable, but it takes careful stewardship to keep it healthy and plentiful.

  • News & Views |

    Little is known about the mechanisms that destroy the oldest organic molecules found in seawater. Field and laboratory observations suggest that these molecules are destroyed by the heat and pressure of deep-sea hydrothermal systems.

    • Steven R. Beaupré

  • News & Views |

    Fires related to Amazonian deforestation are a large source of particulate matter emissions. Satellite measurements and models reveal that reductions in deforestation and fire emissions since 2001 have prevented hundreds of premature deaths each year.

    • Christine Wiedinmyer

  • News & Views |

    Decomposition of soil organic matter could be an important positive feedback to climate change. Geochemical properties of soils can help determine what fraction of soil carbon may be protected from climate-induced decomposition.

    • Eric A. Davidson

  • Letter |

    Rising temperature can increase soil organic matter decomposition and CO2 emissions. In a 4,000 km north–south transect in Chile and Antarctica, soil geochemistry, which can be modified by climate, is the dominant direct control of carbon storage.

    • Sebastian Doetterl
    • , Antoine Stevens
    •  & Pascal Boeckx

  • News & Views |

    Tropospheric ozone is generated from precursor pollutants, but can be blown far afield. Satellite observations show rising ozone levels over China — and almost stable levels over western North America despite stricter regulations.

    • Ruth M. Doherty

  • Letter |

    Tropospheric levels of ozone and its precursors have risen in Asia since 2000. Satellite observations and chemistry–transport simulations suggest that transport of these pollutants to North America partly offsets benefits from stricter regulation.

    • Willem W. Verstraeten
    • , Jessica L. Neu
    •  & K. Folkert Boersma

  • Article |

    Inland waters are important sources of greenhouse gases. Measurements over eight years suggest that African inland waters are a substantial source of greenhouse gases, equivalent to a quarter of the global land and ocean carbon sink.

    • Alberto V. Borges
    • , François Darchambeau
    •  & Steven Bouillon

  • 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 |

    The ocean is an important source of the potent greenhouse gas N2O. Measurements in the tropical South Pacific have revealed a massive efflux of N2O from the coastal upwelling zone.

    • Imke Grefe

  • Letter |

    Oceans emit a third of the natural emissions of nitrous oxide. High-resolution measurements suggest that the Peruvian coast is a hotspot of nitrous oxide fluxes, representing 5–22% of global ocean emissions from previous estimates.

    • D. L. Arévalo-Martínez
    • , A. Kock
    •  & H. W. Bange

  • News & Views |

    Fjords account for less than 0.1% of the surface of Earth's oceans. A global assessment finds that organic carbon is buried in fjords five times faster than other marine systems, accounting for 11% of global marine organic carbon burial.

    • Richard Keil

  • Letter |

    Fjords have been hypothesized to be hotspots of organic carbon burial. A global compilation of organic carbon data and sedimentation rates shows that fjords sequester twice as much carbon as other ocean regions.

    • Richard W. Smith
    • , Thomas S. Bianchi
    •  & Valier Galy

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