Marine chemistry articles within Nature Geoscience

Featured

  • Editorial |

    The outstanding lifespan of the canonical Redfield ratio has shown the power of elemental stoichiometry in describing ocean life. But the biological mechanisms governing this consistency remain unknown.

  • Commentary |

    The ratio of nitrogen to phosphorus in organic matter is close to that in seawater, a relationship maintained through a set of biological feedbacks. The rapid delivery of nutrients from human activities may test the efficacy of these processes.

    • Nicolas Gruber
    •  & Curtis A. Deutsch

  • News & Views |

    The ocean's biological pump transfers carbon to long-term storage in deep waters and sediments. Two inverse modelling studies describe the export of organic matter throughout the surface layer of the world's oceans in exceptional detail.

    • Raymond N. Sambrotto

  • News & Views |

    Multicellular animals probably evolved at the seafloor after a rise in oceanic oxygen levels. Biogeochemical model simulations suggest that as these animals started to rework the seafloor, they triggered a negative feedback that reduced global oxygen.

    • Filip J. R. Meysman

  • Article |

    Marine sediments deposited beneath the eastern Pacific upwelling margin are a substantial sink for silica. The geochemistry of these sediments suggests that periods of intense upwelling result in iron limitation, which enhances the export of silica from the surface to the deep ocean and sediments.

    • L. E. Pichevin
    • , R. S. Ganeshram
    •  & R. Hinton

  • Letter |

    Bioavailable iron is released from anoxic sediments, such as those that underlie the Peruvian upwelling zone. Analyses of iron levels in sediments from this region suggest that iron release occurs in a relatively narrow range of redox conditions, and that the amount of iron released to the upwelling waters has varied over the past 140,000 years.

    • Florian Scholz
    • , James McManus
    •  & Ralph R. Schneider

  • News & Views |

    Microbes quickly consumed much of the methane released in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Time-series measurements now suggest that, after a steep rise, methane oxidation rates crashed while hydrocarbon discharge was still continuing at the wellhead.

    • Evan A. Solomon

  • Letter |

    The blowout of the Macondo oil well in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 injected up to 500,000 tonnes of natural gas, mainly methane, into the deep sea. Spatially extensive measurements of methane dynamics in the months following the spill reveal a rapid rise and fall in the microbial consumption of methane.

    • M. Crespo-Medina
    • , C. D. Meile
    •  & S. B. Joye

  • Article |

    Low levels of iron limit primary productivity across much of the Southern Ocean. Measurements of dissolved iron levels combined with hydrographic data suggest that much of the iron in the surface waters of the Southern Ocean is supplied by deep mixing during winter.

    • Alessandro Tagliabue
    • , Jean-Baptiste Sallée
    •  & Philip W. Boyd

  • Letter |

    Following the Chicxulub impact, many foraminifera in near-surface waters perished, but bottom-dwelling species survived. Impact experiments suggest that sulphate in Chicxulubs target rocks was released as predominantly sulphur trioxide, which would have been converted to sulphuric acid in the atmosphere and swept down swiftly by larger particles, acidifying the ocean surface.

    • Sohsuke Ohno
    • , Toshihiko Kadono
    •  & Seiji Sugita

  • Review Article |

    The oxygenation of the Earth's deep oceans is often thought to have triggered the evolution of simple animals. A review article proposes that instead, the evolution of animal life set off a series of biogeochemical feedbacks that promoted the oxygenation of the deep sea.

    • Timothy M. Lenton
    • , Richard A. Boyle
    •  & Nicholas J. Butterfield

  • Article |

    Breaking waves on the ocean surface generate air bubbles that yield sea spray aerosols when released to the atmosphere. Measurements of sea spray aerosols in the North Atlantic Ocean and the coastal waters of California suggest that the surface water organic carbon reservoir is responsible for the organic carbon enrichment of freshly emitted sea spray aerosol.

    • Patricia K. Quinn
    • , Timothy S. Bates
    •  & D. J. Kieber

  • Letter |

    The flux of methane from the sea bed to the overlying water column is mitigated by the sulphate-dependent anaerobic oxidation of methane by marine microbes. Laboratory experiments point to the equilibration of stable carbon isotopes during the anaerobic oxidation of methane under sulphate-limited conditions.

    • Marcos Y. Yoshinaga
    • , Thomas Holler
    •  & Marcus Elvert

  • Letter |

    Carbon is removed from the Earth’s surface through the formation and burial of carbon-bearing rocks and minerals. An analysis of pore water profiles collected from marine sediments around the globe suggests that the precipitation of authigenic calcium carbonate accounts for around 10% of the carbonate that accumulates in marine sediments globally.

    • Xiaole Sun
    •  & Alexandra V. Turchyn

  • News & Views |

    The neurotoxin methylmercury can accumulate in marine food webs, contaminating seafood. An analysis of the isotopic composition of fish in the North Pacific suggests that much of the mercury that enters the marine food web originates from low-oxygen subsurface waters.

    • Daniel Cossa

  • Review Article |

    Coastal upwelling regimes associated with eastern boundary currents are the most biologically productive ecosystems in the ocean. A suite of human-induced changes could perturb primary production and nutrient cycling in these highly dynamic systems.

    • Douglas G. Capone
    •  & David A. Hutchins

  • Review Article |

    The leakage of cold, methane-rich fluids from subsurface reservoirs to the sea floor sustains some of the richest ecosystems on the sea bed. These cold-seep communities consume around two orders of magnitude more oxygen than the surrounding sea floor as a result of the microbial consumption of seep methane.

    • Antje Boetius
    •  & Frank Wenzhöfer

  • Review Article |

    The flux of carbon out of the ocean surface is not sufficient to meet the energy demands of microbes in the dark ocean. A review of the literature suggests that non-sinking particles and microbes that convert inorganic carbon into organic matter could help to meet this deep-ocean energy demand.

    • Gerhard J. Herndl
    •  & Thomas Reinthaler

  • Article |

    Mercury enters marine food webs in the form of microbially generated monomethylmercury. An analysis of the mercury isotopic composition of nine species of North Pacific fish suggests that microbial production of monomethylmercury below the surface mixed layer contributes significantly to the mercury contamination of marine food webs.

    • Joel D. Blum
    • , Brian N. Popp
    •  & Marcus W. Johnson

  • Letter |

    Submarine seeps release substantial amounts of methane into the overlying water column at continental margins, leading to the formation of calcium carbonate deposits. Analyses of methane-derived carbonate build-ups on the Nile Delta suggest that their formation coincided with the development of deep-water anoxic or suboxic conditions.

    • Germain Bayon
    • , Stéphanie Dupré
    •  & Gert J. de Lange

  • Letter |

    Throughout the ocean, countless small animals swim to depth in the daytime, presumably to seek refuge from large predators. An analysis of backscatter data from acoustic Doppler profilers suggests that migration intensifies oxygen depletion in the upper margin of oxygen minimum zones.

    • Daniele Bianchi
    • , Eric D. Galbraith
    •  & Charles A. Stock

  • News & Views |

    High-temperature water–rock reactions produce large quantities of hydrogen, which must be transported to cooler settings to sustain life. Lower-temperature hydrogen generation could potentially support life in situ and free subsurface microbes from photosynthetic constraints.

    • Steven D'Hondt

  • News & Views |

    Oxygen minimum zones crop up along the eastern boundaries of ocean basins in the low latitudes. A survey of the oxygen minimum zone in the eastern South Pacific points to the coastal zone as a hotspot for anammox-driven marine nitrogen loss.

    • Bo Thamdrup

  • Letter |

    Deposits of highly vesicular pumice that blanket submarine volcanoes are often attributed to explosive eruptions. Density and textural analysis of clasts dredged from the submarine Macauley Volcano, southwest Pacific Ocean, however, reveal an eruptive style that is neither explosive nor effusive, with clasts instead forming from buoyant detachment of a magma foam.

    • Melissa D. Rotella
    • , Colin J. N. Wilson
    •  & Ian C. Wright

  • Letter |

    Zinc is a marine nutrient that may have been limited in the early oceans. Estimates of marine zinc availability through time suggest that values were instead near-modern during the Proterozoic eon.

    • Clint Scott
    • , Noah J. Planavsky
    •  & Timothy W. Lyons

  • Feature |

    Ocean acidification, caused by the uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide, is a significant stressor to marine life. Ulf Riebesell charts the rapid rise in ocean acidification research, from the discovery of its adverse effects to its entry into the political consciousness.

    • Ulf Riebesell

  • 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

  • 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

  • Letter |

    Episodes of ice sheet disintegration and meltwater release over glacial–interglacial cycles are recorded in the sediments of the Labrador Sea. Analyses of sediment cores along the Labrador and Greenland margins reveal a layer of red material that was probably carried to the Labrador Sea during a glacial outburst flood through the Hudson Strait, early in the last interglacial period.

    • Joseph A. L. Nicholl
    • , David A. Hodell
    •  & Oscar E. Romero

  • News & Views |

    The Triassic–Jurassic period extinction marked a rapid turnover in the marine realm. Biomarkers in marine rocks suggest that the development of sulphidic conditions in the early Jurassic delayed marine recovery.

    • Katja Meyer

Browse broader subjects

Browse Marine chemistry across other nature.com journals