Earth and environmental sciences articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Englander and Costello note that African coastal waters are among the world’s most biologically rich, but African countries earn much less than their peers from selling access to foreign fishers. They find forming a “fish cartel" would increase African fish biomass by 16% and profits by 23%.

    • Gabriel Englander
    •  & Christopher Costello

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multi-technique synchrotron measurements support the viability of solid FeO-rich structures at Earth’s mantle base. An order-disorder transition identified in the iron defect structure of FeO may lead to unique physical properties in the region.

    • Vasilije V. Dobrosavljevic
    • , Dongzhou Zhang
    •  & Jennifer M. Jackson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study presents seawater uranium isotope records based on deep-sea corals from the Drake Passage to track subglacial discharge from the Antarctic Ice Sheet, demonstrating a causal link between enhanced subglacial discharge, retreat of the ice sheet, and the rapid rise in sea levels.

    • Tao Li
    • , Laura F. Robinson
    •  & James W. B. Rae

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dynamic 3D modelling of counterclockwise rotation of the Indian plate, which peaked at 52-44 and 33-20 Ma, reveals the diachronous India-Eurasia collision from western-centre to east since 55 ± 5 Ma and complete collision since 40 ± 5 Ma.

    • Xiaoyue Wu
    • , Jiashun Hu
    •  & Lijun Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors map beliefs in climate change and their correlates in Latin America. The study shows skepticism over the existence and anthropogenic origins of climate change to be limited, but identifies a high number of skeptics around the severity of its consequences. Results also show individualistic worldviews to be the most powerful driver of climate change beliefs in the region.

    • Matias Spektor
    • , Guilherme N. Fasolin
    •  & Juliana Camargo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Coastal upwelling regions are among the most productive marine ecosystems but may be threatened by amplified ocean acidification. Here the authors show from community to molecular levels that phytoplankton in an upwelling region respond to short-term acidification exposure with iron uptake pathways and strategies that reduce cellular iron demand.

    • Robert H. Lampe
    • , Tyler H. Coale
    •  & Andrew E. Allen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Green technologies foster the use of green energy; however, large investment costs hinder adoption. In a large-scale field experiment, the authors show that message framing can promote a serious commitment to solar panels among the broader public.

    • Dominik Bär
    • , Stefan Feuerriegel
    •  & Markus Weinmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    North Greenland ice shelves have lost more than a third of their masses, thinning dramatically from below due to increased ocean temperatures. In response, grounding lines have retreated and the amount of ice discharged into the ocean has increased.

    • R. Millan
    • , E. Jager
    •  & A. Bjørk

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Channel networks are key to coastal wetland functioning. Here, the authors show how vegetation enhances network branching, and hypothesize that this may enhance the storm surge buffering capacity of wetlands and their resilience under sea-level rise.

    • Roeland C. van de Vijsel
    • , Jim van Belzen
    •  & Johan van de Koppel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Energetic tradeoffs help determine where individual traits confer a competitive advantage. Here, the authors grow ten Eucalyptus species at four common gardens along a rainfall gradient and show that 50 traits mostly vary as predicted, and that species in their native ranges generally outperform others in height growth.

    • Duncan D. Smith
    • , Mark A. Adams
    •  & Thomas J. Givnish

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Barrier islands and backbarrier saltmarshes are particularly threatened by sea level rise. Here, the authors show how reduction in intertidal areas create negative feedback, shifting transport of coarse sediment through the inlet from net export to net import.

    • Kevin C. Hanegan
    • , Duncan M. FitzGerald
    •  & Zoe J. Hughes

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Convectively active, hazardous rainbands within tropical cyclones are shown to originate primarily from outside the inner core of the cyclone. This outer-origin dominance is partly attributed to squall-line processes and deserves future attention.

    • Cheng-Ku Yu
    • , Che-Yu Lin
    •  & Chi-Hang Pun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The structure of GeO2 melt has been debated for decades due to several unexplained bands present in the GeO2 melt Raman spectra. Here authors present a promising way to analyse melt structures from Raman spectra and they demonstrate threefold coordinated germanium is formed in the GeO2 melt.

    • Songming Wan
    • , Shujie Zhang
    •  & Jinglin You

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Correlation between olivine compositions and diamond grades in kimberlites worldwide indicates better diamond preservation in the mantle minimally affected by carbonate-rich melts and shows that olivine geochemistry is a tool for diamond exploration.

    • Andrea Giuliani
    • , David Phillips
    •  & Zdislav Spetsius

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the atomic-level structure-activity relationship in catalytic ozonation is crucial. Here, the authors reveal single-metal-atom-dependent catalytic ozonation and identify surface atomic oxygen reactivity as a descriptor in this relationship.

    • Dingren Ma
    • , Qiyu Lian
    •  & Jiaguo Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photosymbioses enable efficient nutrient recycling between heterotrophic and phototrophic organisms. This study shows that nutrient cycling in a cnidarian-algal symbiosis is regulated through resource competition between symbiotic partners. Mutualistic interactions can therefore emerge from mutual exploitation in nutrient–exchange symbioses.

    • Nils Rädecker
    • , Stéphane Escrig
    •  & Anders Meibom

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study found that cnidarian animals including corals, anemones and jellyfish share a common mechanism to regulate their association with symbiotic algae. Despite evolving independently, these animals all use the same carbon-nitrogen negative feedback loop for algae control, shedding light on the repeated evolution of these marine symbiotic relationships.

    • Guoxin Cui
    • , Jianing Mi
    •  & Manuel Aranda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How trees respond to increasing atmospheric dryness has important implications for forest growth. Here, the authors use a network of tree-ring records to quantify the multidecadal impact of vapour pressure deficit trends on boreal forests in Canada.

    • Ariane Mirabel
    • , Martin P. Girardin
    •  & Peter B. Reich

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How solar wind and ionosphere contribution to the plasma in the magnetosphere during the development of geomagnetic storms changes is an open question. Here, the authors show a dynamic source change during a storm from solar wind to the ionosphere as the storm develops.

    • L. M. Kistler
    • , K. Asamura
    •  & I. Shinohara

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rapid adoption of zero-emission vehicles with a concurrent transition to clean electricity is essential to achieve U.S. transportation decarbonization goals. Managing travel demand can ease this transition by reducing the need for clean electricity supply. @cghoehne, @nrel, #NRELMobility

    • Christopher Hoehne
    • , Matteo Muratori
    •  & Ookie Ma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Climate change and land use change may have independent or interactive effects on species’ distributions. Here, the authors show that changes in bird, lepidopteran and plant ranges across Great Britain are often explained by individual or additive effects of land conversion and temperature change.

    • Andrew J. Suggitt
    • , Christopher J. Wheatley
    •  & Alistair G. Auffret

  • Article
    | Open Access

    By analyzing historical and Argo observations, the authors find that the warming of mode and intermediate water layers drives most of the global upper 2000 m ocean warming, highlighting the outsized heat uptake by regional water masses in both hemispheres.

    • Zhi Li
    • , Matthew H. England
    •  & Sjoerd Groeskamp

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Membrane distillation is an emerging desalination technology to obtain freshwater from saline based on low-grade energy. Here the authors report on novel superhydrophobic hierarchical porous membranes with enhanced distillation flux suitable for desalination or wastewater treatment.

    • Youmin Hou
    • , Prexa Shah
    •  & Hans-Jürgen Butt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Identification of areas with risk factors for spillover of viruses from animals to humans could assist with early detection of emerging infectious diseases. In this study, the authors characterise potential risks for spillover of SARS-like viruses from bats to humans and identify geographical regions in which multiple risk factors cluster together.

    • Renata L. Muylaert
    • , David A. Wilkinson
    •  & David T. S. Hayman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A new study reveals that bacterial partners supply essential metabolites to the vital microalgal symbionts of corals, including metabolites that boost symbiont growth. This breakthrough increases our understanding of coral microbial ecology and also opens the door to innovative ways of protecting coral reefs.

    • Jennifer L. Matthews
    • , Abeeha Khalil
    •  & Jean-Baptiste Raina

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Denitrification is still widely considered as the only natural sink for N2O here we show how direct biological fixation represents an alternative sink for this potent climate gas.

    • Yueyue Si
    • , Yizhu Zhu
    •  & Mark Trimmer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electrified groundwater irrigation is a major driver of India’s agricultural growth. India refocussed rural electrification towards household electrification in early 2000s in detriment of groundwater irrigation electrification, the authors find.

    • Sudatta Ray
    •  & Hemant K. Pullabhotla

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