Marine chemistry articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biodiversity in established or proposed Antarctic Marine Protected Areas is threatened by climate change. The authors show that projected ocean acidification is severe in Antarctic coastal waters due to strong vertical mixing of anthropogenic carbon.

    • Cara Nissen
    • , Nicole S. Lovenduski
    •  & Judith Hauck

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study presents seawater uranium isotope records based on deep-sea corals from the Drake Passage to track subglacial discharge from the Antarctic Ice Sheet, demonstrating a causal link between enhanced subglacial discharge, retreat of the ice sheet, and the rapid rise in sea levels.

    • Tao Li
    • , Laura F. Robinson
    •  & James W. B. Rae

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt is a hazard for coastal communities. Elevated N and P in the GASB are measured, with As content reflecting P limitation. Nutrient availability causes GASB blooms but reducing P would increase As accumulation.

    • Dennis Joseph McGillicuddy Jr.
    • , Peter Lynn Morton
    •  & Brian Edward Lapointe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nutrient limitation is a key constraint on ocean productivity. Here, by analysing a compilation of field experiments spanning the global ocean, this study shows that increasing the number of different nutrients supplied significantly increases net phytoplankton growth, suggesting multiple nutrients are often approaching co-limiting levels.

    • Thomas J. Browning
    •  & C. Mark Moore

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Using two different mass spectrometric platforms, authors demonstrate how metabolomic data fusion and multivariate analysis can be used to accurately identify the geographic origin and production method of salmon.

    • Yunhe Hong
    • , Nicholas Birse
    •  & Christopher T. Elliott

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Is phosphorous a limiting factor for life on ocean worlds (e.g. Europa and Enceladus)? Calculated dissolved phosphate concentrations from a wide range of possible water-rock reactions suggest cell populations larger than those observed in Earth’s deep oceans could be supported.

    • Noah G. Randolph-Flagg
    • , Tucker Ely
    •  & Tori M. Hoehler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biological carbon pump pathways combine to transport organic carbon into the deep ocean. This study shows that sinking particles sequester 4 Pg C, active transport sequesters 1 Pg C, and subduction sequesters 0.8 Pg C in the California Current Ecosystem.

    • Michael R. Stukel
    • , John P. Irving
    •  & Natalia Yingling

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors show that Chinstrap penguins play a significant role in iron recycling, essential for phytoplankton growth and carbon sequestration, recycling yearly 521 tonnes of iron, half of what they did 40 years ago due to population decline.

    • Oleg Belyaev
    • , Erica Sparaventi
    •  & Antonio Tovar-Sánchez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study identifies the rapidness of marine mineral reactions, directly after an extreme rainfall event. The reactions have the potential to affect marine cation and CO2 cycling, impacting element turnover on human time scales

    • Sonja Geilert
    • , Daniel A. Frick
    •  & Andrew W. Dale

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study reports a dense, late summer phytoplankton bloom in the Southern Ocean that accumulated unusually high levels of organic matter and supported feeding hot spots for birds and whales. The authors show that this recurring open ocean bloom is driven by anomalies in easterly winds that push sea ice southwards and favour the upwelling of deep waters enriched in hydrothermal iron.

    • Sebastien Moreau
    • , Tore Hattermann
    •  & Harald Steen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ziveri et al find calcifying phytoplankton dominate pelagic CaCO3 production, but a large portion of this CaCO3 dissolves in the photic zone - they suggest the processes driving shallow CaCO3 dissolution are key to understanding the role of planktonic calcifiers in regulating atmospheric CO2.

    • Patrizia Ziveri
    • , William Robert Gray
    •  & William Berelson

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Zooplankton are a critical link to higher trophic levels and play an important role in global biogeochemical cycles. This Review examines key responses of zooplankton to ocean warming, highlights key knowledge and geographic gaps that need to be addressed, and discusses how better use of observations and long-term zooplankton monitoring programmes can help fill these gaps.

    • Lavenia Ratnarajah
    • , Rana Abu-Alhaija
    •  & Lidia Yebra

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Pliocene shows that a warmer world can support both expanded and contracted marine Oxygen Minimum Zones. While oxygen distributions were overall like today, there was less low-oxygen water in the North Pacific and more in the North Atlantic

    • Catherine V. Davis
    • , Elizabeth C. Sibert
    •  & Pincelli M. Hull

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Geochemical data from sedimentary rocks in Siberia indicate that members of the soft-bodied Ediacara biota (the earliest macroscopic life on Earth) were tolerant of low-oxygen conditions, suggesting they had the capacity for anaerobic metabolisms.

    • Lucas B. Cherry
    • , Geoffrey J. Gilleaudeau
    •  & Alan J. Kaufman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Vertical exchange in the ocean is an important conduit connecting the surface to the deep and influences the distributions of gases, nutrients, pollutants, and other tracers. Here the authors using high-resolution observations and numerical simulations of the ocean fronts in the Northern Gulf of Mexico reveal that the interaction between the fronts and land-sea breeze creates slantwise pathways for water parcels and induces significant subduction of surface water and upwelling of bottom water.

    • Lixin Qu
    • , Leif N. Thomas
    •  & Jonathan D. Nash

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Our understanding of ancient organic carbon cycling in marine environments is limited. Here the authors developed a method to reconstruct upper ocean organic carbon chemistry in the geological past, which when applied, can help to create a better understanding of the evolution of the carbon cycle.

    • Babette A. A. Hoogakker
    • , Caroline Anderson
    •  & Victoria L. Peck

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Compound extreme events in two or more oceanic ecosystem stressors are increasingly considered as a major concern for marine life. Here the authors present a first global analysis on compound marine heatwave and ocean acidity extreme events, identifying hotspots, drivers, and projecting future changes.

    • Friedrich A. Burger
    • , Jens Terhaar
    •  & Thomas L. Frölicher

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fluids released from progressive breakdown of minerals at increasing pressure within a mélange may explain the trace element systematics and stable thallium isotope data of the Kamchatka arc lavas from volcanic front to back arc.

    • Yunchao Shu
    • , Sune G. Nielsen
    •  & Maureen Auro

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ocean CO2 uptake at mid-latitudes counteracts CO2 release in the tropics, but we know little about the effects of marine heatwaves that modulate this process. Here, the authors use joint analysis of satellite measurements, in situ observation, reconstructions derived from machine learning algorithms, numerical model of the global ocean, and find that areas where PMHWs most frequently occur coincide with the regions that are the most critical for the oceanic carbon cycle.

    • Alexandre Mignot
    • , Karina von Schuckmann
    •  & Tristan Amm

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dissolved carbon concentrations in the ocean interior are computed by a deep-learning model using ocean surface data. In the Southern Ocean, they decreased in the 1990s-2000s and increased since 2010, reducing anthropogenic carbon uptake potential.

    • Varvara E. Zemskova
    • , Tai-Long He
    •  & Nicolas Grisouard

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Using cold-water corals, this work identifies a deep outflow of Pacific waters via the Tasman Sea during the last ice age, thus highlighting the role of this area for the interoceanic exchange of water masses on climatic time scales.

    • Torben Struve
    • , David J. Wilson
    •  & Tina van de Flierdt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Weddell Sea dense water formation facilitates carbon sequestration on centennial time scales. The authors show that for a high-emission scenario, carbon sequestration is reduced by 2100 due to water-mass property changes on the continental shelf.

    • Cara Nissen
    • , Ralph Timmermann
    •  & Judith Hauck

  • Article
    | Open Access

    From modern seasonal to the deep time, global data show that continental hydrology has a direct and consistent effect on river and marine Li isotope compositions, highlighting a crucial role of climate on Earth’s weathering and the carbon cycle.

    • Fei Zhang
    • , Mathieu Dellinger
    •  & Zhangdong Jin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors show that reverse weathering reactions, such as the formation of glauconite minerals, are first-order controls on element sequestration in shallow marine sediments throughout Earth history, in particular during greenhouse periods with sea level highstand.

    • Andre Baldermann
    • , Santanu Banerjee
    •  & Thomas Zack

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The ability of the ocean’s biota to sequester carbon is thought to be negatively affected by climate change. Here the authors use time-series data in the Sargasso Sea to show that biotic processes can buffer against these negative impacts.

    • Michael W. Lomas
    • , Nicholas R. Bates
    •  & Tatsuro Tanioka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Results from a new model suggest that a deep-sea, carbonate version of galvanization, in which aragonite sacrifies itself to protect the underlying calcite, could explain the predominance of calcite over aragonite in the sediment record.

    • Olivier Sulpis
    • , Priyanka Agrawal
    •  & Jack J. Middelburg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Black carbon is a product of incomplete combustion and is distributed everywhere on the Earth’s surface due to its recalcitrant nature. Here the authors show the removal process and flux of dissolved black carbon in the deep sea, its ultimate repository.

    • Youhei Yamashita
    • , Motohiro Nakane
    •  & Hiroshi Ogawa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    “Mid-Cretaceous experienced a series of drastic environmental perturbations called Oceanic Anoxic Events. Here, the authors asses high-resolution Os isotopic records which indicate that most of these events were associated with massive submarine volcanic episodes, but some minor ones were not.”

    • Hironao Matsumoto
    • , Rodolfo Coccioni
    •  & Junichiro Kuroda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Storms dominate the subpolar Southern Ocean, where upwelling CO2 drives outgassing that impacts global CO2 budget, yet how storms modify this outgassing is unknown. Here, the authors present coupled atmosphere-ocean observations to show how storm-driven ocean mixing and circulation cause substantial CO2 variability and outgassing.

    • Sarah-Anne Nicholson
    • , Daniel B. Whitt
    •  & Pedro M. S. Monteiro

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The North Atlantic biological pump has the most intense absorption of C globally, but how this will fare in light of climate changes (especially sea-ice melting) is poorly understood. Here the authors present a 24-month continuous time series of physical, chemical, and biological observations in the Fram Strait.

    • Wilken-Jon von Appen
    • , Anya M. Waite
    •  & Antje Boetius

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hydrothermal vents are biogeochemically important, but their contribution to the carbon cycle is poorly constrained. Here the authors build a biogeochemical model that estimates autotrophic and heterotrophic production rates of microbial communities within hydrothermal plumes along mid-ocean ridges.

    • Cécile Cathalot
    • , Erwan G. Roussel
    •  & Pierre-Marie Sarradin

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