Biogeochemistry articles within Nature

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  • Article |

    High-resolution imaging techniques show that aromatic amino acids such as tryptophan formed abiotically and were subsequently preserved at depth beneath the Atlantis Massif of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, supporting the hydrothermal theory for the origin of life.

    • Bénédicte Ménez
    • , Céline Pisapia
    •  & Matthieu Réfrégiers

  • Letter |

    Satellite data for the period 1982–2016 reveal changes in land use and land cover at global and regional scales that reflect patterns of land change indicative of a human-dominated Earth system.

    • Xiao-Peng Song
    • , Matthew C. Hansen
    •  & John R. Townshend

  • News & Views |

    The rate at which carbon dioxide is lost from soil has risen faster than the rate at which it is used by land plants, because soil microbes have become more active — possibly weakening the land surface’s ability to act as a carbon sink.

    • Kiona Ogle

  • Letter |

    Triple oxygen isotope measurements of 1.4-billion-year-old sedimentary sulfates reveal a unique mid-Proterozoic atmosphere and demonstrate that gross primary productivity in the mid-Proterozoic was between 6% and 41% of pre-anthropogenic levels.

    • Peter W. Crockford
    • , Justin A. Hayles
    •  & Boswell A. Wing

  • Letter |

    This study of whole-soil carbon dynamics finds that, of the atmospheric carbon that is incorporated into the topmost metre of soil over 50 years, just 19 per cent reaches the subsoil, in a manner that depends on land use and aridity.

    • Jérôme Balesdent
    • , Isabelle Basile-Doelsch
    •  & Christine Hatté

  • News & Views |

    Computer simulations show that areas of the ocean that have low levels of dissolved oxygen will expand, but then shrink, in response to global warming — adding to an emerging picture of the finely balanced processes involved.

    • Laure Resplandy

  • Letter |

    Phytotransferrin, a functional analogue of transferrin, has an obligate requirement for carbonate to bind iron, which suggests that acidification-driven declines in the concentration of seawater carbonate ions may negatively affect diatom iron acquisition.

    • Jeffrey B. McQuaid
    • , Adam B. Kustka
    •  & Andrew E. Allen

  • Brief Communications Arising |

    • T. W. Crowther
    • , M. B. Machmuller
    •  & M. A. Bradford

  • News & Views |

    Microbial activity in the sea results in a loss of bioavailable nitrogen. It emerges that the climate phenomenon called the El Niño–Southern Oscillation has a surprisingly large effect on the size of this loss.

    • Katja Fennel

  • Letter |

    Nutrient amendment experiments at the boundary of the South Atlantic gyre reveal extensive regions in which nitrogen and iron are co-limiting, with other micronutrients also approaching co-deficiency; such limitations potentially increase phytoplankton community diversity.

    • Thomas J. Browning
    • , Eric P. Achterberg
    •  & C. Mark Moore

  • Letter |

    The authors provide evidence for the existence of life on Earth in the earliest known sedimentary rocks and suggest that the presence of organic carbon, and low stable-isotope values of graphite from sedimentary rocks in Labrador pushes back the existence of organic life to beyond 3.95 billion years.

    • Takayuki Tashiro
    • , Akizumi Ishida
    •  & Tsuyoshi Komiya

  • News & Views |

    A study confirms that volcanism set off one of Earth's fastest global-warming events. But the release of greenhouse gases was slow enough for negative feedbacks to mitigate impacts such as ocean acidification. See Letter p.573

    • Katrin J. Meissner
    •  & Timothy J. Bralower

  • News & Views |

    A revised timeline for when algae became ecologically important among plankton in the ancient oceans reveals a link between chemical changes in those waters and the emergence of animals in marine ecosystems. See Letter p.578

    • Andrew H. Knoll

  • Letter |

    Steroid biomarkers provide evidence for a rapid rise of marine planktonic algae between 659 and 645 million years ago, establishing more efficient energy transfers and driving ecosystems towards larger and increasingly complex organisms.

    • Jochen J. Brocks
    • , Amber J. M. Jarrett
    •  & Tharika Liyanage

  • News & Views |

    An analysis suggests that the time taken for ecosystems to recover from drought increased during the twentieth century. If the frequency of drought events rises, some ecosystems might never have the chance to fully recover. See Letter p.202

    • Sonia I. Seneviratne
    •  & Philippe Ciais

  • News & Views |

    Trace elements are enriched in plants by natural processes, human activities or both. An analysis of mercury in Arctic tundra vegetation offers fresh insight into the uptake of trace metals from the atmosphere by plants. See Letter p.201

    • William Shotyk

  • News & Views |

    A proxy for the amount of carbon dioxide taken up by plants for photosynthesis has been used to estimate historical global uptake, revealing a large increase that might partly offset the rise in atmospheric CO2 levels. See Letter p.84

    • Dan Yakir

  • Letter |

    Long-term records of global carbonyl sulfide levels reveal that terrestrial gross primary production (GPP) increased by around 30% during the twentieth century—a finding that may aid understanding of the connection between GPP growth and climate change.

    • J. E. Campbell
    • , J. A. Berry
    •  & M. Laine

  • News & Views |

    A global analysis finds that nitrogen fertilizers could be used more efficiently if their international distribution across croplands was altered — a measure that would also decrease nitrogen pollution.

    • Xin Zhang

  • Letter |

    Steranes in ancient rocks have been used as ‘molecular fossils’, but the very earliest records of steranes have been shown to be contaminants; here, the presence of two key sterol biosynthesis enzymes in eukaryotes and bacteria suggests at least one gene transfer between bacteria and the earliest eukaryotes occurred some 2.3 billion years ago.

    • David A. Gold
    • , Abigail Caron
    •  & Roger E. Summons

  • Review Article |

    The recent expansion of observational data has changed our understanding of the ocean iron cycle and its linkages with nutrients such as carbon and nitrogen.

    • Alessandro Tagliabue
    • , Andrew R. Bowie
    •  & Mak A. Saito

  • News & Views |

    The ocean's uptake of carbon dioxide increased during the 2000s. Models reveal that this was driven primarily by weak circulation in the upper ocean, solving a mystery of ocean science. See Letter p.215

    • Sara E. Mikaloff Fletcher

  • News & Views |

    The discovery of what is potentially the world's largest continuous tropical peat complex has great implications for global carbon stocks, land management and scientific investment in central Africa. See Letter p.86

    • Lola Fatoyinbo

  • Letter |

    Examination of the ecosystem properties of treeline ecotones in seven temperate regions of the world shows that the reduction in temperature with increasing elevation does not affect tree leaf nutrient concentrations, but does reduce ground-layer community-weighted plant nitrogen levels, leading to a strong stoichiometric convergence of ground-layer plant community nitrogen to phosphorus ratios across all regions.

    • Jordan R. Mayor
    • , Nathan J. Sanders
    •  & David A. Wardle

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