Environmental sciences articles within Nature Geoscience

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  • 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 |

    A giant impact on the young proto-Earth is thought to explain the formation of the Moon. High-precision analysis of titanium isotopes in lunar rocks suggests that the Moon and Earth's mantle are more similar than existing models permit.

    • Matthias M. M. Meier

  • Letter |

    Gas hydrates have been suggested as a carbon source for Palaeogene hyperthermal events, but warm seafloor temperatures are thought to have limited their accumulation. Numerical simulations suggest that enhanced organic carbon sedimentation and methanogenesis could have compensated for the smaller area of hydrate stability.

    • Guangsheng Gu
    • , Gerald R. Dickens
    •  & Walter G. Chapman

  • Letter |

    Eutrophication increases the acidity of coastal waters. Model simulations suggest that the drop in pH in coastal waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico since pre-industrial times is greater than that expected from eutrophication and ocean acidification alone.

    • Wei-Jun Cai
    • , Xinping Hu
    •  & Gwo-Ching Gong

  • News & Views |

    Naturally produced hydrocarbons such as isoprene influence air quality and climate. Accounting for circadian control of isoprene emissions helps to bring model simulations of ground-level ozone into closer agreement with observations.

    • Alexander T. Archibald

  • Letter |

    Microbes were thought to be the dominant reef constructors following the end-Permian mass extinction. Sponge–microbe reef deposits formed in the Early Triassic from the western United States suggest that instead, metazoan-reef building continued immediately following the extinction wherever marine conditions allowed.

    • Arnaud Brayard
    • , Emmanuelle Vennin
    •  & Gilles Escarguel

  • Letter |

    Trace elements and their isotopes have been explored as tracers for the movement of water masses. Measurements of the high-field-strength elements Zr, Hf, Nb and Ta along two meridional sections of the Pacific Ocean suggest higher ratios of Zr/Hf and Nb/Ta than expected, suggesting that these ratios will be useful for tracking water masses.

    • M. Lutfi Firdaus
    • , Tomoharu Minami
    •  & Yoshiki Sohrin

  • Letter |

    Water has been found in many lunar rock samples, but its sources are unknown. Isotopic analyses of Apollo samples of lunar mare basalts and highlands rocks suggest that a significant volume of water was delivered to the Moon by comets shortly after its formation by giant impact.

    • James P. Greenwood
    • , Shoichi Itoh
    •  & Hisayoshi Yurimoto

  • News & Views |

    Bromine facilitates the oxidation of elemental mercury in the lower atmosphere in polar and subpolar regions. Measurements over the Dead Sea suggest that bromine also generates large quantities of oxidized mercury in the mid-latitudes.

    • Parisa A. Ariya

  • Editorial |

    The sea floor is emerging as a source of carbon to the overlying ocean. Scientific exploration of the sea bed is essential for a full understanding of the global carbon budget and the safety of deep-sea carbon storage proposals.

  • Letter |

    Marine sediments contain large quantities of carbon, primarily in the form of gas hydrate. Isotopic analyses suggest that carbon derived from fossil methane accounts for up to 28% of the dissolved organic carbon in sea water overlying hydrate-bearing seeps in the northeastern Pacific Ocean.

    • John W. Pohlman
    • , James E. Bauer
    •  & N. Ross Chapman

  • Letter |

    In the polar atmosphere, non-reactive gaseous elemental mercury is converted to a highly reactive form of mercury by halogens such as bromine. Measurements over the Dead Sea suggest that bromine also triggers reactive mercury formation over the mid-latitude ocean.

    • Daniel Obrist
    • , Eran Tas
    •  & Menachem Luria

  • Editorial |

    The deep ocean is largely uncharted territory. The aftermath of the BP oil spill has been a poignant reminder that its relative inaccessibility hinders exploration, but does not extend much protection from human interference.

  • Commentary |

    Short-lived greenhouse gases and black-carbon aerosols have contributed to past climate warming. Curbing their emissions and quantifying the forcing by all short-lived components could both mitigate climate change in the short term and help to refine projections of global warming.

    • Joyce E. Penner
    • , Michael J. Prather
    •  & David S. Stevenson

  • News & Views |

    The ocean's nitrogen budget has escaped quantification. A modelling study shows how a small shift in the nitrate-to-phosphate uptake ratio of phytoplankton has a large effect on calculated nitrogen fixation rates.

    • Wolfgang Koeve
    •  & Paul Kähler

  • Letter |

    Natural petroleum seepage emits large volumes of oil and methane to the oceans every year, accompanied by the formation of asphalt volcanoes on the sea floor. The discovery of seven asphalt volcanoes off the coast of southern California may help to explain high methane emissions recorded during the late Pleistocene.

    • David L. Valentine
    • , Christopher M. Reddy
    •  & Morgan Soloway

  • Letter |

    The sedimentary deposits at Meridiani Planum on Mars were formed in acidic surface waters. Geochemical calculations show that the oxidation of dissolved iron and the precipitation of oxidized iron minerals in the surface waters could be sufficient to generate the inferred acidity.

    • Joel A. Hurowitz
    • , Woodward W. Fischer
    •  & Ralph E. Milliken

  • Books & Arts |

    Anna Armstrong reviews Dirty Oil by Leslie Iwerks, Dogwoof: 2010. UK release date: 19 March 2010.

    • Anna Armstrong

  • Letter |

    Mineral dust and marine sediment resuspension are generally considered the primary sources of the nutrient iron to the oceans. Numerical model results suggest that iron released by hydrothermal activity is also an important source of dissolved iron, particularly in the Southern Ocean.

    • Alessandro Tagliabue
    • , Laurent Bopp
    •  & Catherine Jeandel

  • Letter |

    Oil spilt from the tanker Exxon Valdez more than 20 years ago still persists in the gravel beaches of Prince William Sound, Alaska. Field data and numerical modelling indicate that some of the oil was trapped in the anoxic environment of the lower layers of the beaches when the water table was low.

    • Hailong Li
    •  & Michel C. Boufadel

  • Editorial |

    Arsenic contamination of groundwater affects millions of people in southern Asia. Water from deep wells could help, but only if used in moderation.

  • Commentary |

    Nearly an eighth of the population in Bangladesh relies on arsenic-contaminated drinking water. Arsenic-removal filters could help to reduce exposure, but their price is high for the poor and their maintenance is cumbersome.

    • Richard Bart Johnston
    • , Suzanne Hanchett
    •  & Mohidul Hoque Khan

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