Earth and environmental sciences articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article |

    Volcanic eruptions are thought to restore equilibrium when overpressure in the crust is induced by new magma rising from depth. Here, the authors use data from the 2007 Stromboli eruption as well as models to suggest that eruption is instead a consequence of the gravity-driven instability of the volcanic edifice.

    • Maurizio Ripepe
    • , Dario Delle Donne
    •  & Pasquale Poggi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Cambrian explosion of biological diversity has been associated with widespread ocean oxygenation, yet early Cambrian ocean redox conditions remain controversial. Here, the authors present a suite of molybdenum isotope data and show that the ocean was oxygenated to modern-like levels by 521 Ma.

    • Xi Chen
    • , Hong-Fei Ling
    •  & Corey Archer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Indian summer monsoon rainfall impacts millions of people and accurate forecasts are highly desirable, yet official operational forecasts have failed to predict extreme events in 1994, 2002, 2004 and 2009. Here, the authors use dynamical and physical–empirical models to investigate the reasons for this failure.

    • Bin Wang
    • , Baoqiang Xiang
    •  & Kyung-Ja Ha

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How primary production is influenced by climatic forcing has not been tested in most ecosystems. Here, the authors study a four-decade record of grassland production and find a sustained decline in above-ground net primary production attributable to increased aridity from declining late-summer rainfall.

    • E. N. J. Brookshire
    •  & T. Weaver

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although magnetic reconnection is recognized as the dominant mode for solar wind plasma to enter the magnetosphere, Kelvin–Helmholtz waves (KHW) have been suggested to also be involved. Here, the authors use 7 years of THEMIS data to show that KHW occur 19% of the time, and may be important for plasma transport.

    • Shiva Kavosi
    •  & Joachim Raeder

  • Article |

    Intense solar radiation on desiccated desert soils can cause a short circuit in biogeochemical cycles leading to the release of CO2and nitrogen oxides. Here, the authors show that this can be linked to the production of soil superoxide radicals, which then produce peroxides and hydroxyl radicals.

    • Christos D. Georgiou
    • , Henry J. Sun
    •  & Irene Margiolaki

  • Article |

    Agricultural practices can degrade soil conditions through the loss of organic matter, a situation that will be exacerbated with growing populations. Here, the authors show that converting cropland to management intensive grazing can rapidly improve soil quality and increase organic matter concentrations.

    • Megan B. Machmuller
    • , Marc G. Kramer
    •  & Aaron Thompson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Conditions below the active permafrost layer in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, are thought to be ice cemented. Here, the authors use an airborne electromagnetic sensor to image the resistivity beneath the valley floor, which indicates the presence of high-salinity liquids at temperatures well below freezing.

    • J. A. Mikucki
    • , E. Auken
    •  & N. Foley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Amazon rainforest is dominated by relatively few tree species, yet the degree to which this hyperdominance influences carbon cycling remains unknown. Here, the authors analyse 530 forest plots and show that ∼1% of species are responsible for 50% of the aboveground carbon storage and productivity.

    • Sophie Fauset
    • , Michelle O. Johnson
    •  & Oliver L. Phillips

  • Article |

    Despite methane’s (CH4) importance as a greenhouse gas, much remains unknown regarding CH4 sources and sinks. Here, the authors conduct geochemical monitoring and analyses of several cave systems in Spain and show that subterranean atmospheres may be acting as daily sinks for atmospheric CH4.

    • Angel Fernandez-Cortes
    • , Soledad Cuezva
    •  & Sergio Sanchez-Moral

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The classic mantle plume concept explains large igneous provinces and hotspot magmatism, but often contradicts observed surface uplift and plume morphology. Here, the authors present a plume model that better supports observations by considering low-buoyancy plumes containing up to 15% of recycled oceanic crust.

    • Juliane Dannberg
    •  & Stephan V. Sobolev

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sea surface temperature anomalies in the tropical Pacific can influence global atmospheric circulation, yet prediction of this atmospheric signal is limited to less than 1 year. Here, the authors present observational and modelling evidence for multi-year predictability.

    • Yoshimitsu Chikamoto
    • , Axel Timmermann
    •  & Fei-Fei Jin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Whether exploration causes earthquakes has been a matter of recent contention particularly regarding shale gas exploration. Here, the authors use hydraulic modelling and earthquake locations to show that brine production and wastewater injection in the Azle area are likely causing earthquakes.

    • Matthew J. Hornbach
    • , Heather R. DeShon
    •  & James H. Luetgert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recent numerical simulations suggest that the fronts that develop along the rims of ocean eddies are stronger in winter than in summer. Here, the authors present observational confirmation, which informs how these frontal flows are formed.

    • Jörn Callies
    • , Raffaele Ferrari
    •  & Jonathan Gula

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although it is known that soot particles are emitted in large quantities to the atmosphere, our understanding of their environmental effects is limited. Here, the authors study hydrocarbon soot particles during oxidation by ozone, suggesting that this process leads to increases in redox activity.

    • María Antiñolo
    • , Megan D. Willis
    •  & Jonathan P.D. Abbatt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Seismic anisotropy has been widely observed in the crust and mantle due to the crystal preferred orientation (CPO) of highly anisotropic minerals such as amphibole, though it is poorly constrained. Here, the authors present an experimental study showing that three CPOs exist depending on temperature and stress.

    • Byeongkwan Ko
    •  & Haemyeong Jung

  • Article |

    The mechanisms driving soil carbon storage, one of the largest stores of terrestrial carbon, remain poorly understood. Here, the authors present data from the long-term Jena Experiment on grassland biodiversity, showing that elevated carbon storage at high plant diversity is a direct function of increased soil microbial activity.

    • Markus Lange
    • , Nico Eisenhauer
    •  & Gerd Gleixner

  • Article |

    The microbial carbon pump is an important pathway for marine carbon sequestration, yet the chemical complexity and stability of persistent molecules remain enigmatic. Here, the authors use bioassay experiments to investigate the complexity and refractory nature of bacterial dissolved organic matter.

    • Oliver J. Lechtenfeld
    • , Norbert Hertkorn
    •  & Ronald Benner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Local climatic effects of forests remain poorly understood due to the coarse spatial resolution of models and field observations. Here, the authors use global satellite data to analyse the spatiotemporal cooling or warming effects of tropical, temperate and boreal forests on climate.

    • Yan Li
    • , Maosheng Zhao
    •  & Shuangcheng Li

  • Article |

    Tornadoes are one of nature’s most hazardous phenomena, yet prognostic tools for tornado occurrence are lacking. Here, the authors use Bayesian inference techniques to evaluate the spatiotemporal relationship between atmospheric variables and tornado activity in North America.

    • Vincent Y.S. Cheng
    • , George B. Arhonditsis
    •  & Heather Auld

  • Article |

    The role of successional state in determining ecosystem sensitivity to climate change is largely unknown. Here, the authors subject seven European shrublands to moderate warming and drought conditions over 14 years and show that responsiveness is associated with the dynamic state of the ecosystem.

    • György Kröel-Dulay
    • , Johannes Ransijn
    •  & Josep Penuelas

  • Article |

    The Mertz Glacier Polynya—a site of sea ice production and Antarctic Bottom Water formation—was strongly impacted following the calving of a massive iceberg in 2010. Here, the authors present a 250-year long sea ice reconstruction from the region and present evidence for a ~70-year calving cyclicity.

    • P. Campagne
    • , Xavier Crosta
    •  & G. Massé

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The rainfall rate of tropical cyclones is expected to increase under a warmer climate, yet likely changes in rainfall area remain unknown. Here, the authors combine satellite data and model simulations and show that rainfall area is dependent on relative sea surface temperatures.

    • Yanluan Lin
    • , Ming Zhao
    •  & Minghua Zhang

  • Article |

    Ocean island basalts contain primordial and recycled crustal components, sourced from the deep mantle by plumes. Here, the authors examine Hf-Nd-He isotopes in ocean floor basalts south of Samoa and suggest that selective ingress of only the primordial component from the Samoan plume can occur.

    • Oliver Nebel
    •  & Richard J. Arculus

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The sign of soil moisture–precipitation feedback has been strongly debated. Here, the authors show that rain tends to fall where soils are drier than their surroundings, but on days with overall wet and heterogeneous conditions, explaining the apparent contradictions between recent studies.

    • Benoit P. Guillod
    • , Boris Orlowsky
    •  & Sonia I. Seneviratne

  • Article |

    An underlying assumption of palaeoceanographic proxies is that they are representative of the water properties directly above their site of deposition. Here, the authors combine high-resolution particle tracking simulations and sedimentary proxy data to challenge this assumption.

    • Erik van Sebille
    • , Paolo Scussolini
    •  & Rainer Zahn

  • Article |

    Extreme sea level rises are a threat to coastal communities, but their cause, in terms of seasonal or interannual time scales, has received little attention. Here, the authors combine observational and model data to show that one such rise in 2009–10 was caused by a 30% downturn in the Atlantic overturning circulation.

    • Paul B. Goddard
    • , Jianjun Yin
    •  & Shaoqing Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Conventionally, the heaviest rainfall is associated with the most intense storms, yet this relationship remains untested. Here, Hamada et al. analyse 11 years of radar observations from the topics and subtropics, and conclude that the heaviest rainfall is most commonly associated with less intense convection.

    • Atsushi Hamada
    • , Yukari N. Takayabu
    •  & Edward J. Zipser

  • Article |

    Some nutrient budgets and fluxes in aquatic environments are poorly constrained. Here, the authors identify a novel pathway of reactive nitrogen sequestration in lakes of the Sierra Nevada, and investigate the relative reactivity of dissolved organic carbon.

    • S.J. Goldberg
    • , G.I. Ball
    •  & L.I. Aluwihare

  • Article |

    The behaviour of subducted carbonates at high pressures within the Earth is still poorly understood. Here, the authors present experimental and theoretical evidence of a new carbon–oxygen bond in a high-pressure mineral phase, which has implications for the viscosity and mobility of carbonate melts.

    • Eglantine Boulard
    • , Ding Pan
    •  & Wendy L. Mao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The role of cohesion is vital to our understanding of how sedimentary bedforms evolve. Here, the authors show that microorganisms within the sediment affect cohesion and demonstrate that ripples can take up to one hundred times as long to develop when extracellular polymeric substances are present.

    • Jonathan Malarkey
    • , Jaco H. Baas
    •  & Peter D. Thorne

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Excitations of seismic background noise are mostly related to fluid disturbances, and earthquakes have not been considered as a source due to their intermittent nature. Here, the authors use a seabed hydrophone array and show that background noise offshore Japan is mainly due to small earthquakes.

    • Takashi Tonegawa
    • , Yoshio Fukao
    •  & Yoshiyuki Kaneda

  • Article |

    The microbial carbon pump may play an important role in carbon sequestration in the deep ocean, but quantifying organic matter in this dark realm is difficult. Here, the authors use fluorescence spectroscopy to investigate the turnover time of fluorescent dissolved organic matter.

    • Teresa S. Catalá
    • , Isabel Reche
    •  & X. Antón Álvarez-Salgado

  • Article |

    Using tidal correlations as a predictive tool for earthquakes is controversial because of the size of the data set. This study examines correlations between small earthquakes and periodic fault stresses to build a simple predictive model for larger quakes that shows good agreement with observed trends.

    • Braden A.W. Brinkman
    • , Michael LeBlanc
    •  & Karin A. Dahmen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The last interglacial has been suggested as a test bed for models developed for future climate prediction, yet many climatic parameters remain unknown. Here, the authors present a precisely dated fossil coral and show that temperature seasonality in the southern Caribbean Sea 118 ka was similar to today.

    • Thomas Felis
    • , Cyril Giry
    •  & Sander R. Scheffers

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