Volume 14 Issue 6, June 2021

Analysis of global ocean carbonate chemistry and water mass age information confirms the substantial in situ dissolution of calcium carbonate particles in the upper water column.

High-frequency radar tracking of icebergs floating in front of a glacier in Greenland show that movements of the ice mélange consistently increase before calving events, indicating that mélange has the potential to modulate calving.

Phosphorus plays a dynamic and complex role in marine biogeochemistry, which is closely connected to carbon, nitrogen and metal cycling, according to a literature synthesis on recent advances in understandings of the marine phosphorus cycle.

Rates of protoplanetary accretion and differentiation control the depletion of nitrogen in rocky planets, according to high-pressure/temperature experiments that show that nitrogen is extremely siderophilic.

Greenhouse gas-induced warming intensifies atmospheric variability associated with the El Niño/Southern Oscillation, according to an analysis of global climate model projections.

New particles can form rapidly in Antarctica through the reactions of sulfuric acid and amines, suggest ship and station measurements around the Antarctic Peninsula.

Reduction of ammonia emissions may be effective in reducing the nitrate component of fine particulate matter air pollution across the North China Plain, according to the simulation of nitrate trends using the GEOS-Chem atmospheric chemistry model.

Thunderstorm activity in the Southern Great Plains was closely coupled to abrupt climate shifts during the last glacial period, according to an analysis of oxygen isotopes in modern rainfall and ancient speleothems from Texas.

Globally, reservoirs are net emitters of carbon when drawdown areas are taken into account, according to an analysis of satellite observations of reservoir surface area.

The environmental behaviour of mercury and other toxic soft elements is in part dictated by the surface structure of nanoparticulates, according to a combination of microcosm bioassays and theoretical calculations.

Calving of an outlet glacier in Greenland is consistently preceded by distinctive flow patterns in the mélange of sea ice and icebergs in front of the terminus, according to terrestrial radar observations and particle dynamic modelling of the Jakobshavn Isbræ system.

About 50% of total dissolution of marine calcium carbonate occurs in the water column below 300 m depth while sinking to the seafloor, according to a reconstruction of settling fluxes of calcium carbonate in major oceanic regions from seawater observations.

Middle Miocene deep ocean temperatures were linked to Antarctic ice-sheet extent, not volume, due to distinct vegetation–climate feedbacks, according to coupled atmosphere–ocean–vegetation general circulation modelling.

Viscous deformation is a potentially prevalent mechanism of fault lubrication during earthquakes, according to laboratory experiments that simulate seismic faulting of various rock-forming minerals.

Microcontinents drifting towards a subduction zone can be extended before reaching it by slab pull, not just extended after their accretion, according to numerical simulations supported by geological evidence.