Articles in 2010

Eastern Indonesia hosts one of the most complex and fascinating tectonic systems on the planet. Palaeogeographical reconstructions indicate that subduction and deformation of a single slab of oceanic crust created the complicated configuration.

Short-lived greenhouse gases and black-carbon aerosols have contributed to past climate warming. Curbing their emissions and quantifying the forcing by all short-lived components could both mitigate climate change in the short term and help to refine projections of global warming.

Accusations by sceptics have steered climate researchers into an unproductive battle. They should now rise above the debate and help develop models of the coupled climate–socioeconomic system to advise policymakers.

Science has successfully established the discussion of climate change in the global arena. Following the Copenhagen crisis in climate policy, attention needs to be shifted from global goals to societally relevant, local and pragmatic countermeasures.

Reconstructions of atmospheric chemistry and microbial life early in the Earth's history have been contentious. Observations increasingly point to the evolution of complex and variable environments earlier in time.

At subduction zones, andesite lavas erupt in greater abundance than the individual magmas that mix to produce them. Textural and geochemical analyses of andesites from Mount Hood, Oregon, reveal that injection and mixing of iron- and magnesium-rich magma in the magma chamber can initiate the volcanic eruption.

Varying concentrations of atmospheric oxygen have affected the development of animals and the role of wildfire in ecosystems. Reconstructions of past oxygen concentrations from fossil charcoal constrain atmospheric oxygenation over the past 400 million years.

Veerabhadran Ramanathan, James Schauer, Hung Nguyen and colleagues found the Beijing Olympics to be conducive to international collaboration in science, as well as sport, as they attempted to assess the effect of emission restrictions on climate forcing.

The western Pacific warm pool and the Indonesian throughflow affect tropical climate and atmospheric convection. Marine sediment records reveal uniformly elevated temperatures from 10,000 to 7,000 years ago, despite the initiation of modern Indonesian throughflow circulation about 9,500 years ago.

Black-carbon aerosols absorb solar radiation and are thought to be a significant source of global warming. Surface and aircraft measurements of aerosol plumes in China suggest that solar absorption increases with the ratio of black carbon to sulphate.

Ice ages during the Palaeozoic era are marked by glacial–interglacial cycles thought to be driven by variations in the Earth’s orbit. Numerical simulations suggest that the response of vegetation to the varying insolation may be an important factor in the associated climate response.

The reason for the spectacular curvature of the Banda subduction zone is debated. Tomographic images and plate reconstructions reveal subduction of a single slab. The ancient geometry of the Australian plate, as well as the interaction between the slab and the mantle, caused the deformation of the slab.

The termination of the last glacial period was punctuated by the collapse and resumption of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. Sedimentary records from the South Atlantic Ocean indicate that an unusually deep limb of North Atlantic Deep Water formed after the resumption of overturning circulation during the Bølling–Allerød warm event.

The terrestrial biosphere is a key regulator of atmospheric chemistry and climate. Total positive radiative forcing resulting from biogeochemical feedbacks between the terrestrial biosphere and atmosphere could be equally as important as that resulting from physical feedbacks.

The formation and burial of calcium phosphate minerals removes large quantities of phosphorus from the ocean. Radiotracer experiments reveal that bacteria in marine sediments mediate the production of these mineral phases at remarkably fast rates.

Dense water that formed over the Antarctic continental shelf spreads throughout the global ocean as Antarctic Bottom Water. Observations over eight years reveal a strong seasonal cycle in the flow of Weddell Sea bottom water northwards that is linked to winds over the western margin of the Weddell Sea.

Organic phosphorus is removed from the ocean by its conversion to phosphorite. Laboratory incubations suggest that bacteria catalyse phosphorite formation, and that the rate of conversion is greatest under anoxic conditions.

Modelling studies suggest that management of solar radiation could produce stabilized global temperatures and reduced global precipitation. An analysis of a large-ensemble simulation of 54 temperature-stabilization scenarios suggests that it may not be possible to achieve climate stabilization through management of solar radiation simultaneously in all regions.