Marine chemistry articles within Nature Geoscience

Featured

  • Article |

    Microbial degradation is a key process for removing aromatic hydrocarbons from the oceans, according to measurements in plankton and seawater with 64 types of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and their microbial degradation genes in four ocean basins.

    • Belén González-Gaya
    • , Alicia Martínez-Varela
    •  & Jordi Dachs

  • Article |

    Glacial meltwater from the Greenland Ice Sheet causes buoyancy-driven upwelling of nutrient-rich, subtropical waters from depth to the continental shelf. This nutrient transport may exceed the direct ice sheet inputs, according to geochemical analyses of transect samples from Sermilik Fjord.

    • Mattias R. Cape
    • , Fiammetta Straneo
    •  & Matthew A. Charette

  • Article |

    Much of the methane produced by the deep subseafloor biosphere is consumed by anaerobic methane oxidation with sulfate in continental shelf sediments, according to a global map and calculated budgets of methane fluxes and degradation.

    • Matthias Egger
    • , Natascha Riedinger
    •  & Bo Barker Jørgensen

  • News & Views |

    Substantial amounts of denitrification and other anaerobic metabolisms can occur in anoxic microenvironments within marine snow particles, according to model simulations. This microbial activity may have a global impact on nitrogen cycling.

    • Laura A. Bristow

  • News & Views |

    The composition of the oceans is altered by hydrothermal circulation. These chemical factories sustain microbial life, which in turn alters the chemistry of the fluids that enter the ocean. A decade of research details this complex interchange.

    • Susan Q. Lang

  • News & Views |

    The elemental ratios of marine phytoplankton and organic matter vary widely across ocean biomes, according to a catalogue of biogeochemical data, suggesting that climate change may have complex effects on the ocean’s elemental cycles.

    • Tim DeVries

  • Editorial |

    Iron is an essential fuel for life in the oceans. The influence of this element on biogeochemistry — and nitrogen cycling in particular — varies across environments and time.

  • 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

  • News & Views |

    Atmospheric oxygen was maintained at low levels throughout huge swathes of Earth's early history. Estimates of phosphorus availability through time suggest that scavenging from anoxic, iron-rich oceans stabilized this low-oxygen world.

    • Simon W. Poulton

  • 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 |

    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

  • 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 |

    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

  • 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 |

    An ancient carbon release resulted in widespread dissolution of carbonates at the sea floor. Numerical simulations suggest that the pattern of dissolution can be explained by a top-down invasion of corrosive bottom waters from the North Atlantic.

    • Morgan F. Schaller

  • 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

  • Letter |

    Methanotrophic bacteria can consume methane emitted from the ocean floor before it reaches the atmosphere. Variations in coastal currents can reduce methane oxidation in the ocean by limiting methanotroph residence time above methane seeps.

    • Lea Steinle
    • , Carolyn A. Graves
    •  & Helge Niemann

  • News & Views |

    Deep abyssal clay sediments in organic-poor regions of the ocean present challenging conditions for life. Techniques for identifying cells at extremely low concentrations demonstrate that aerobic microbes are found throughout these deep clays in as much of 37% of the global ocean.

    • Beth N. Orcutt

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