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| Open AccessTracking 21st century anthropogenic and natural carbon fluxes through model-data integration
Accurate estimates of carbon fluxes are important to our understanding of the carbon cycle. Here, via model-data integration, the authors disentangle anthropogenic and environmental carbon flux contributions of terrestrial woody vegetation, and find that environmental processes are weaker and more susceptible to interannual variations and extreme events in the 21st century than previously estimated.
- Selma Bultan
- , Julia E. M. S. Nabel
- & Julia Pongratz
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Article
| Open AccessAstrochronology of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum on the Atlantic Coastal Plain
Astrochronology of a core in Maryland suggests that the onset of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) warming lasted about 6 thousand years. These data are more consistent with astronomical forcing than an extraterrestial trigger for the PETM.
- Mingsong Li
- , Timothy J. Bralower
- & Marci M. Robinson
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Article
| Open AccessGlobal soil profiles indicate depth-dependent soil carbon losses under a warmer climate
The response of soil organic carbon to climate warming may be soil depth-dependent, but remains unquantified in situ. Here the authors show that warming induces more proportional soil carbon losses in topsoil than in subsoil, particularly from high-latitudinal carbon-rich soils.
- Mingming Wang
- , Xiaowei Guo
- & Zhongkui Luo
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Article
| Open AccessMultiple carbon cycle mechanisms associated with the glaciation of Marine Isotope Stage 4
Summary for general audience: We used carbon stable isotope data from an Antarctic ice core to evaluate which mechanisms caused changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide 74-59 thousand years ago, including a ~40 ppm decrease at the beginning of the last ice age.
- James A. Menking
- , Sarah A. Shackleton
- & Vasilii V. Petrenko
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Article
| Open AccessForest expansion dominates China’s land carbon sink since 1980
The impact of land-use and cover-change (LUCC) on ecosystem carbon stock in China is poorly known due to large biases in existing databases. Here the authors develop a new LUCC database with corrected false signals and reveal that forest expansion is the dominant driver of China’s recent carbon sink.
- Zhen Yu
- , Philippe Ciais
- & Guoyi Zhou
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Article
| Open AccessDeglacial Subantarctic CO2 outgassing driven by a weakened solubility pump
Using paired reconstructions of seawater pCO2, temperature, and nutrient utilization, Dai et al. show underappreciated influences of the solubility pump on deglacial Subantarctic surface-water pCO2 variabilities compared to the biological pump.
- Yuhao Dai
- , Jimin Yu
- & Xuan Ji
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Article
| Open AccessMicrospectroscopic visualization of how biochar lifts the soil organic carbon ceiling
A decadal-scale field trial revealed 1.01 Mg of rhizodeposit and necromass C was stored in soil microaggregate and mineral fractions per Mg biochar-C applied. Microspectroscopic analyses visualize mechanisms for this elevated soil C storage ceiling.
- Zhe (Han) Weng
- , Lukas Van Zwieten
- & Annette Cowie
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| Open AccessThe emerging role of drought as a regulator of dissolved organic carbon in boreal landscapes
Long-term records from boreal streams indicate strong seasonal redistributions of dissolved organic carbon concentrations and quality linked to the severity of summer drought conditions
- Tejshree Tiwari
- , Ryan A. Sponseller
- & Hjalmar Laudon
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Article
| Open AccessDivergent changes in particulate and mineral-associated organic carbon upon permafrost thaw
Based on observations from thermokarst-impacted sites on the Tibetan Plateau, the authors find substantial particulate organic carbon loss but stable mineral-associated organic carbon and enriched iron-bound organic carbon upon permafrost thaw.
- Futing Liu
- , Shuqi Qin
- & Yuanhe Yang
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Article
| Open AccessOrganic matter composition and greenhouse gas production of thawing subsea permafrost in the Laptev Sea
Subsea permafrost underneath the Arctic Ocean is one of the least understood compartments of the global carbon cycle. Here, Wild et al. shed light on its carbon sources, degradation history and potential greenhouse gas release after thaw.
- Birgit Wild
- , Natalia Shakhova
- & Örjan Gustafsson
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Article
| Open AccessConvergence in phosphorus constraints to photosynthesis in forests around the world
Phosphorus (P) limitation is pervasive in tropical forests. Here the authors analyse the dependence of photosynthesis on leaf N and P in tropical forests, and show that incorporating leaf P constraints in a terrestrial biosphere model enhances its predictive power.
- David S. Ellsworth
- , Kristine Y. Crous
- & Ian J. Wright
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Article
| Open AccessGlobal systematic review with meta-analysis shows that warming effects on terrestrial plant biomass allocation are influenced by precipitation and mycorrhizal association
Biomass allocation in plants is fundamental for understanding and predicting terrestrial carbon storage. Here, the authors conduct a meta-analysis showing that warming effect on plant root:shoot is influenced by precipitation and the type of mycorrhizal fungi associated.
- Lingyan Zhou
- , Xuhui Zhou
- & Madhav P. Thakur
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Article
| Open AccessSustained and intensified lacustrine methane cycling during Early Permian climate warming
This study reports the occurrence of sustained and intensified microbial CH4 cycling in a giant lake in northwestern China during Early Permian climate warming. Lacustrine CH4 emissions may have contributed to the end of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age.
- Funing Sun
- , Wenxuan Hu
- & Shuzhong Shen
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Article
| Open AccessPlanktonic foraminifera organic carbon isotopes as archives of upper ocean carbon cycling
Our understanding of ancient organic carbon cycling in marine environments is limited. Here the authors developed a method to reconstruct upper ocean organic carbon chemistry in the geological past, which when applied, can help to create a better understanding of the evolution of the carbon cycle.
- Babette A. A. Hoogakker
- , Caroline Anderson
- & Victoria L. Peck
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Article
| Open AccessTerrigenous dissolved organic matter persists in the energy-limited deep groundwaters of the Fennoscandian Shield
Dissolved organic matter in the Fennoscandian Shield deep continental bedrock fracture waters of varying characteristics and ages carries a strong terrigenous signature, and only a small proportion of this potential energy source links to the deep biosphere microbial community.
- Helena Osterholz
- , Stephanie Turner
- & Mark Dopson
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Article
| Open AccessCompound marine heatwaves and ocean acidity extremes
Compound extreme events in two or more oceanic ecosystem stressors are increasingly considered as a major concern for marine life. Here the authors present a first global analysis on compound marine heatwave and ocean acidity extreme events, identifying hotspots, drivers, and projecting future changes.
- Friedrich A. Burger
- , Jens Terhaar
- & Thomas L. Frölicher
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Article
| Open AccessProcess-oriented analysis of dominant sources of uncertainty in the land carbon sink
The global net land sink is relatively well constrained. However, the responsible drivers and above/below-ground partitioning are highly uncertain. Model issues regarding turnover of individual plant and soil components are responsible.
- Michael O’Sullivan
- , Pierre Friedlingstein
- & Sönke Zaehle
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Article
| Open AccessClimate windows of opportunity for plant expansion during the Phanerozoic
Climatic variables have played a significant role in plant evolution across the Phanerozoic. Here, the authors link climate with a new dynamic vegetation model to identify two windows of opportunity for plant biomass expansion, corresponding with the expansion of land plants and the angiosperm radiation.
- Khushboo Gurung
- , Katie J. Field
- & Benjamin J. W. Mills
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Article
| Open AccessDrivers and trends of global soil microbial carbon over two decades
Soil microbial carbon is central to soil functions and services, but its spatial-temporal dynamics are unclear. Here the authors show global trends in soil microbial carbon, which suggests a global decrease in soil microbial carbon, mostly driven by temperature increases in northern areas.
- Guillaume Patoine
- , Nico Eisenhauer
- & Carlos A. Guerra
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| Open AccessA deep-learning estimate of the decadal trends in the Southern Ocean carbon storage
Dissolved carbon concentrations in the ocean interior are computed by a deep-learning model using ocean surface data. In the Southern Ocean, they decreased in the 1990s-2000s and increased since 2010, reducing anthropogenic carbon uptake potential.
- Varvara E. Zemskova
- , Tai-Long He
- & Nicolas Grisouard
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Article
| Open AccessTropical forests as drivers of lake carbon burial
Tropical forest lake sediments are global carbon sinks, representing an important implication for climate change, of which both temperature and forest conservation are key factors in maintaining the carbon burial mechanism in lacustrine ecosystems.
- Leonardo Amora-Nogueira
- , Christian J. Sanders
- & Humberto Marotta
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| Open AccessWidespread increasing vegetation sensitivity to soil moisture
Water availability is a major control of vegetation dynamics and terrestrial carbon cycling. Here, the authors show that vegetation sensitivity to soil moisture has been increasing in the last 36 years, especially in (semi)arid areas, and that state-of-the-art land surface models fail to capture this trend.
- Wantong Li
- , Mirco Migliavacca
- & Rene Orth
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Article
| Open AccessGlobal stocks and capacity of mineral-associated soil organic carbon
Mineral-organic associations play a key role in soil carbon preservation. Here, Georgiou et al. produce global estimates of mineral-associated soil carbon, providing insight into the world’s soils and their capacity to store carbon
- Katerina Georgiou
- , Robert B. Jackson
- & Margaret S. Torn
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| Open AccessSeparating natural from human enhanced methane emissions in headwater streams
The effects of fertiliser from intensive agriculture are well recognised, but not so well for fine-sediment. Here we show how widespread ingress of agriculturally derived fine-sediment since the 1940s markedly amplifies methane emissions from streams.
- Yizhu Zhu
- , J. Iwan Jones
- & Mark Trimmer
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Article
| Open AccessGroundwater discharge as a driver of methane emissions from Arctic lakes
CH4 inputs to Arctic lakes via groundwater discharge are an important pathway that links CH4 production in thawing permafrost to emission via lakes. Here the authors unravel the role and drivers of groundwater inflows for CH4 emissions from Arctic lakes.
- Carolina Olid
- , Valentí Rodellas
- & Jan Karlsson
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Article
| Open AccessMarine siliceous ecosystem decline led to sustained anomalous Early Triassic warmth
The widespread disappearance of siliceous life sustained extreme temperatures in the wake of Earth’s most severe mass extinction event.
- Terry T. Isson
- , Shuang Zhang
- & Noah J. Planavsky
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Article
| Open AccessRegional and seasonal partitioning of water and temperature controls on global land carbon uptake variability
The dominant driver of variations in global land carbon sink remains unclear. Here the authors show that the seasonal compensation of temperature effects on land carbon sink in the Northern Hemisphere could induce a global water dominance.
- Kai Wang
- , Ana Bastos
- & Shilong Piao
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Article
| Open AccessMineralogical control on methylotrophic methanogenesis and implications for cryptic methane cycling in marine surface sediment
Adsorption of methylamines onto clay minerals provides a hitherto unrecognised control on methane production in marine surface sediment.
- Ke-Qing Xiao
- , Oliver W. Moore
- & Caroline L. Peacock
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Article
| Open AccessMicrobial functional changes mark irreversible course of Tibetan grassland degradation
The Tibetan Kobresia pastures store 2.5% of the world’s soil organic carbon. Here the authors show that soil degradation and microbial shifts may irreversibly diminish the carbon sink function and accelerate nutrient losses.
- Andreas Breidenbach
- , Per-Marten Schleuss
- & Sandra Spielvogel
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| Open AccessMicroscale carbon distribution around pores and particulate organic matter varies with soil moisture regime
Carbon sequestration in soils has rarely been observed at microscopic scales. Here the authors reveal the impact of soil moisture regimes in shaping carbon stabilization and mineralization patterns tied to the pore network.
- Steffen Schlüter
- , Frederic Leuther
- & Hans-Jörg Vogel
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| Open AccessA new conceptual framework for the transformation of groundwater dissolved organic matter
Dissolved organic matter becomes highly labile in dark anoxic groundwater environments, suggesting that groundwater extraction and subterranean groundwater discharge could be significant sources of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
- Liza K. McDonough
- , Martin S. Andersen
- & Andy Baker
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| Open AccessExtreme rainstorms drive exceptional organic carbon export from forested humid-tropical rivers in Puerto Rico
Extreme rainfall in Puerto Rico leads to some of the highest particulate organic carbon yields. Here the authors find that global estimates of carbon export may be underestimated by up to 9% because of a lack of studies in the tropics.
- K. E. Clark
- , R. F. Stallard
- & W. H. McDowell
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Article
| Open AccessField-based tree mortality constraint reduces estimates of model-projected forest carbon sinks
Here the authors use broad-scale tree mortality data to estimate biomass loss, constraining uncertainty of projected forest net primary productivity in 6 models, finding weaker tropical forest carbon sinks with climate change.
- Kailiang Yu
- , Philippe Ciais
- & Ashley P. Ballantyne
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Article
| Open AccessDeforestation-induced climate change reduces carbon storage in remaining tropical forests
Warming and drying from deforestation could amplify carbon storage losses in tropical remaining forests. Here the authors report this value to be extra 5.1% in the Amazon and 3.8% in Congo as compared to the direct biomass loss from deforestation.
- Yue Li
- , Paulo M. Brando
- & James T. Randerson
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Article
| Open AccessA global temperature control of silicate weathering intensity
How silicate weathering responds to and regulates Earth’s climate remain controversial. This study suggests the primary control of temperature on weathering intensity globally and the temperature-weathering feedback may be stronger in cold Earth.
- Kai Deng
- , Shouye Yang
- & Yulong Guo
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Article
| Open AccessHistorically inconsistent productivity and respiration fluxes in the global terrestrial carbon cycle
Terrestrial plants sequester carbon through photosynthesis, and that carbon is eventually returned to the atmosphere through respiration by plants and soil microbes. Here the authors show a large, unexpected gap in estimations of these two carbon fluxes.
- Jinshi Jian
- , Vanessa Bailey
- & Ben Bond-Lamberty
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Matters Arising
| Open AccessLarge influence of atmospheric vapor pressure deficit on ecosystem production efficiency
- Haibo Lu
- , Zhangcai Qin
- & Wenping Yuan
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Matters Arising
| Open AccessReply to: Large influence of atmospheric vapor pressure deficit on ecosystem production efficiency
- Laibao Liu
- , Lukas Gudmundsson
- & Sonia I. Seneviratne
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Article
| Open AccessMicrobes contribute to setting the ocean carbon flux by altering the fate of sinking particulates
Micro-scale microbial community dynamics can substantially alter the fate of sinking particulates in the ocean thus playing a key role in setting the vertical flux of particulate carbon in the ocean.
- Trang T. H. Nguyen
- , Emily J. Zakem
- & Naomi M. Levine
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Article
| Open AccessTropical methane emissions explain large fraction of recent changes in global atmospheric methane growth rate
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas with emissions that are challenging to constrain. Here the authors use 10 years of satellite observations and show tropical terrestrial emissions account for 80% of observed global methane increases.
- Liang Feng
- , Paul I. Palmer
- & Yi Liu
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| Open AccessMixotrophic plankton foraging behaviour linked to carbon export
Marine mixotrophic protists that use both heterotrophic and phototrophic metabolisms may impact the carbon cycle in unexpected ways. A recently characterized mixotroph can craft three-dimensional mucilage feeding structures that trap nutrient-rich plankton prey and contribute to the sinking of carbon from the surface ocean.
- Natalie R. Cohen
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Article
| Open AccessMucospheres produced by a mixotrophic protist impact ocean carbon cycling
Marine microbes govern ocean productivity and biogeochemistry, regulating global climate. Here the authors describe the sophisticated feeding strategy of a mixotrophic dinoflagellate and show how its behaviour impacts the vertical flux of carbon.
- Michaela E. Larsson
- , Anna R. Bramucci
- & Martina A. Doblin
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Article
| Open AccessAlpine permafrost could account for a quarter of thawed carbon based on Plio-Pleistocene paleoclimate analogue
The stability of permafrost carbon is poorly understood. Here the authors use Plio-Pleistocene clumped isotope reconstructions from the Tibetan Plateau and climate simulation to determine that ~85 petagrams of alpine carbon is vulnerable to thawing.
- Feng Cheng
- , Carmala Garzione
- & Aradhna Tripati
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Article
| Open AccessFast-decaying plant litter enhances soil carbon in temperate forests but not through microbial physiological traits
Mineral-associated soil carbon buildup is poorly explained by microbial necromass production (a common hypothesis). During litter decomposition, these processes are decoupled by priming effects and alternate soil carbon formation pathways
- Matthew E. Craig
- , Kevin M. Geyer
- & Richard P. Phillips
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Article
| Open AccessAdaptive carbon export response to warming in the Sargasso Sea
The ability of the ocean’s biota to sequester carbon is thought to be negatively affected by climate change. Here the authors use time-series data in the Sargasso Sea to show that biotic processes can buffer against these negative impacts.
- Michael W. Lomas
- , Nicholas R. Bates
- & Tatsuro Tanioka
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Article
| Open AccessTropical extreme droughts drive long-term increase in atmospheric CO2 growth rate variability
The apparent temperature sensitivity of atmospheric CO2 growth rate has increased markedly over the past six decades, however, the increase remains unexplained. Here we show that tropical extreme droughts amplified the interannual variability in atmospheric CO2 growth rate and drove the sensitivity change.
- Xiangzhong Luo
- & Trevor F. Keenan
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Article
| Open AccessTree functional traits, forest biomass, and tree species diversity interact with site properties to drive forest soil carbon
Forests constitute important ecosystems in the global carbon cycle. This study investigates how tree species influence soil organic carbon using a global dataset, showing the importance of tree functional traits and forest standing biomass to optimise forest carbon sink.
- Laurent Augusto
- & Antra Boča
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Article
| Open AccessAragonite dissolution protects calcite at the seafloor
Results from a new model suggest that a deep-sea, carbonate version of galvanization, in which aragonite sacrifies itself to protect the underlying calcite, could explain the predominance of calcite over aragonite in the sediment record.
- Olivier Sulpis
- , Priyanka Agrawal
- & Jack J. Middelburg
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Article
| Open AccessAtmospheric dryness reduces photosynthesis along a large range of soil water deficits
Using global flux tower observations, the authors show that atmospheric dryness always reduces photosynthesis, whereas soil dryness can increase photosynthesis if soil water stores are sufficient.
- Zheng Fu
- , Philippe Ciais
- & Tomohiro Hajima