Mosses support carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, organic matter decomposition and plant pathogen control in soils across the globe, according to a global survey of soil attributes in ecosystems with and without mosses.

Submarine terraced deposits of some caldera-forming explosive eruptions result from periodic collapses of the eruption column and can be used to estimate their source eruption rate, according to an analysis of such terraces and analogue experiments.

The recent emergence of a new economic model that is focused on the pursuit of human and ecological wellbeing — the wellbeing economy — offers a fresh framework for geology to contribute to society. The challenge will be to extend the social purpose of geology beyond material and financial goals to the ultimate ends of sustainability through delivering long-term wellbeing for all.

This month marks the 15-year anniversary of Nature Geoscience, a milestone reached after weathering three years of pandemic-related global disruption. We reflect on the burden on peer review over this period and the resilience of the geoscience community.

Glacier retreat in Greenland not only changes the primary productivity of downstream fjord ecosystems but also the ecosystem structure and functioning, according to seasonal sampling of two downstream fjords.

Anthropogenic greenhouse gases and aerosols have counteracting effects on heat uptake and interbasin transport in the ocean, according to an ensemble of climate model simulations.

Both magnetic reconnection and kinetic instabilities are required to produce magnetotail plasma eruptions, according to high-resolution global simulations of Earth’s magnetosphere.

Uncertainty in stratospheric water vapour projections is reduced using an observational constraint based on historical co-variations between atmospheric temperature and water vapour.

Overturning circulation that mixes surface and deep water was invariant over the Holocene, suggesting a limited role in rising CO₂ during this time, according to deep-sea coral radiocarbon records.

The low-latitude western boundary current in the South Pacific Ocean strengthened as climate warmed over the past 100 years, according to a coral nitrogen isotope record from the Solomon Sea.

Research on the energy transition needs to involve all communities and requires breaking the paradigm of traditional industry-funded research, argues Jef Caers from his personal story.

Temporarily overshooting climate targets is a distinct possibility given our current emissions trajectory. It is crucial that we understand which of the associated impacts are reversible, and to what extent.

Inspired by the mineralogist Shulamit Gross’s studies of one of the world’s unique mineral factories, Michael Anenburg discusses the pyrometamorphic minerals formed by fire in the Dead Sea desert.

Nature Geoscience spoke with Dr Shlomit Sharoni, an ocean biogeochemist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Dr Kelly Andersen, a tropical ecologist at Nanyang Technological University about the interplay between phosphorous cycling and the ecosystems they study.

From Dutch painters to ocean sediments, Caroline Slomp discusses the role vivianite plays in the distribution of phosphorus, an essential nutrient for life.

Ecosystems have long been shaped by phosphorus limitation. We need to better understand how natural and human-caused shifts in the phosphorus cycle disrupt the Earth system.