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Atmospheric short-wave absorption due to wildfire smoke is caused predominantly by dark brown carbon particles, according to observations from smoke plumes in the United States.
Spatial patterns of channel sinuosity near river outlets reflect the interplay between the channel migration rate and the avulsion timescale, according to sinuosity measurements of lowland rivers on Earth and Mars and channel evolution simulations.
The warm Last Interglacial led to a seasonally ice-free Arctic Ocean and a transformation to Atlantic conditions, according to planktic foraminifera records from central Arctic Ocean sediment cores.
Widespread shallow-water hydrothermal venting in the North Atlantic, probably a source of methane, coincided with the onset of the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum, according to borehole proxy records and seismic imaging.
Himalayan valley-floor widths are controlled by long-term tectonically driven exhumation, rather than by water discharge, according to an analysis of valley-floor width and exhumation rate observations.
The long duration of the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum, compared with other transient Eocene warming events, can be explained by an increase in clays forming from the weathering of silicate minerals, according to lithium isotope records of marine carbonates.
Experimental determination of how the post-garnet phase transition pressure varies with temperature suggests a downward-convex phase boundary with potential implications for mantle dynamics.
Orbital precession played a more important role than obliquity during Late Pleistocene swings in ice-sheet extent, according to an analysis of benthic oxygen isotope records with precise age constraints.
Grasses contribute more than half of the soil organic carbon across tropical savannas, according to a case study in South Africa combined with a synthesis of data from tropical savannas globally.
The asteroid Ryugu experienced aqueous alteration under changing temperature and redox conditions, according to an isotopic analysis of secondary calcite and dolomite grains in samples from Ryugu obtained by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft.
The competition between grassland vegetation and microbes for phosphorus controls how plant productivity responds to elevated CO2, according to free-air CO2 enrichment experiments on phosphorus-limited grasslands.
Atmospheric observations show the presence of shallow mesoscale circulations in the North Atlantic trades and demonstrate their widespread influence on atmospheric moisture and, consequently, clouds.
Groundwater springs formed during the retreat of a melting glacier are likely hotspots of methane emissions in the high Arctic according to measurements of methane concentrations in springs recently formed in central Svalbard.
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.
Atmospheric sulfate aerosols—which could cool the atmosphere—were formed in less acidic cloud water in continental interiors in pre-industrial time than today, according to a triple oxygen isotope analysis of sulfate in weathering carbonates.