Volume 9 Issue 11, November 2016

To keep global warming below 2 °C, countries need long-term strategies for low-emission development. Without these, immediate emissions reductions may lock-in high-emitting infrastructure, hamper collaboration and make climate goals unachievable.

Large glacial–interglacial fluctuations occurred during the late Palaeozoic. Geochemical and fossil data show these cycles were marked by coincident shifts in the carbon cycle and terrestrial biosphere.

Gender disparities in science are well documented. An analysis of 1,224 recommendation letters from 54 countries for geoscience postdoctoral fellowships reveals that women are half as likely to receive an excellent letter as men.

The North Atlantic Oscillation profoundly influences European and North American winter weather. Dynamical model predictions now exhibit skill in prediction of the winter North Atlantic Oscillation more than one year in advance.

Upward fluxes have been thought to dominate nutrient replenishment at the ocean surface. A numerical model reveals that lateral transfer is an important source of phosphorus and nitrogen for all five subtropical gyres.

Life at ocean depths below ∼100 m requires organic carbon from the upper ocean. Analyses of satellite and Argo-float data reveal that seasonal changes in mixed-layer depth supply substantial amounts of carbon to this deep and dark ecosystem.

The late Palaeozoic was marked by a series of glacial–interglacial cycles. Geochemical and fossil data suggest a role for terrestrial vegetation–carbon cycle feedbacks in the climate response to orbital forcing.

Links between subduction zone earthquakes and slow slip on the plate interface are unclear. Reconstructions of a slow slip event in the Guerrero subduction zone segment, in Mexico, suggest that the event triggered the 2014 Papanoa earthquake.

Tidal triggering of earthquakes is debated. Analysis of global earthquake catalogue data compared with tidal stress histories suggests that the probability of a large earthquake is greater during times of maximum tidal stress amplitude.

Winter cooling over Eurasia has been suggested to be linked to Arctic sea-ice loss. Climate model simulations reveal no evidence for such a link and instead suggest that a persistent atmospheric circulation pattern is responsible.

A period of continental aridification and ecosystem change occurred about seven million years ago. A global sea surface temperature reconstruction identifies cooling temperatures and a strengthened meridional temperature gradient at this time.

Buoyant continental crust is thought to resist subduction. Calculation of the crustal mass balance during the collision between India and Eurasia indicates that about 50% of pre-collisional continental crust has been subducted into the mantle.