a plan view of ground-hugging gravity currents spreading from the base of a particle fountain experiment modelling a collapsing eruption column.

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Featuring a Focus on phosphorus and articles on universal precipitation drivers, contributions of soil mosses, collapsing eruption columns, and more.

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    Phosphorus is a key nutrient for life on Earth and its abundance shapes ecosystems. Here we present a collection of research articles and other content from Nature Geoscience that examines how the phosphorus cycle has influenced the biogeochemical history of the Earth system and how it is now changing due to human influences.

  • Nature Geoscience, Nature Communications, and Communications Earth & Environment welcome submissions on the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake sequence, which (if accepted for publication) will be included in this open Collection.

    Open for submissions
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    • Rock organic carbon from glacial runoff, once assumed to be non-bioavailable, is identified as a substrate used by marine sedimentary microbes. This challenges the traditional view that rock organic carbon bypasses the active carbon cycle and indicates an additional source of fossil greenhouse-gas emissions on geological, or possibly even shorter, timescales.

      Research Briefing
    • Deciphering the contribution of mantle convection to Earth’s surface elevation remains challenging, but it may have a dominant influence on mountain-building at subduction zones, according to a new study reconstructing the topographic evolution of Calabria.

      • Gregory A. Ruetenik
      News & Views
    • Lightning can produce bioavailable nitrogen oxides, but it is unknown whether this was a substantial nutrient source for Earth’s earliest biosphere. Comparison of nitrogen isotope measurements from spark discharge experiments to those from the rock record suggests that lightning was likely not the main source of bioavailable nitrogen for the biosphere throughout most of Earth’s history.

      Research Briefing
    • High pressures may have enabled ferric iron-rich silicate melts to coexist with iron metal near the base of magma oceans early in the history of large rocky planets like Earth. This suggests a relatively oxygen-rich atmosphere during the late stages of core formation on these planets.

      • Fabrice Gaillard
      News & Views
    • Field studies reveal that carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, organic matter decomposition and soil-borne plant pathogen control are greater in soils beneath mosses than in unvegetated soils. Based on these studies, modelling shows the likely extent of soil moss cover and underlines its value to the planet.

      Research Briefing
  • 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.

    • Jef Caers
    World View
  • 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.

    Editorial
  • 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.

    • Michael Anenburg
    All Minerals Considered
  • 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.

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

    • Caroline P. Slomp
    All Minerals Considered
  • 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.

    Editorial
Phosphorus-containing fertilizer pellets applied to wheat crops.

Phosphorus cycling

Phosphorus is a key nutrient for life on Earth and its abundance shapes ecosystems.
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