Earth and environmental sciences articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Wetlands are global hotspots of carbon storage, but errors exist with current estimates of the extent of their carbon density. Here the authors show that mangrove sediment organic carbon stock has previously been overestimated, while ecosystem carbon stock has been underestimated.

    • Xiaoguang Ouyang
    •  & Shing Yip Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How the effects of irrigation on the climate conditions compare to other anthropogenic forcings is not well known. Observational and model evidence show that expanding irrigation has dampened historical anthropogenic warming during hot days, an effect that is particularly strong over South Asia.

    • Wim Thiery
    • , Auke J. Visser
    •  & Sonia I. Seneviratne

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    Gardner and colleagues argue that efforts to conserve biodiversity should capitalise on current momentum in the realm of climate change policy.

    • Charlie J. Gardner
    • , Matthew J. Struebig
    •  & Zoe G. Davies

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Porphyry copper and gold deposits are the dominant natural suppliers of these metals to our society, yet the large variations in metal endowments of porphyry Cu–Au deposits remain obscure. Here, the author shows that Cu-rich porphyries require large amounts of magma and water to be formed, while Au-rich porphyries are the result of a better efficiency of Au precipitation.

    • Massimo Chiaradia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Increasingly, eDNA is being used to infer ecological interactions. Here the authors sample eDNA over 18 months in a marine environment and use co-occurrence network analyses to infer potential interactions among organisms from microbes to mammals, testing how they change over time in response to oceanographic factors.

    • Anni Djurhuus
    • , Collin J. Closek
    •  & Mya Breitbart

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Exploring the heterogeneity in impacts and outcomes of using solar geoengineering to counteract global warming is important. Here the authors found that solar geoengineering that reduces temperature below present-day would grow GDP by accelerating economic development in tropics, but projections for global GDP-per-capita by the end of the century are highly dispersed and model dependent.

    • Anthony R. Harding
    • , Katharine Ricke
    •  & Juan Moreno-Cruz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Models show a cooler surface temperature response to deforestation than observations which has been attributed to uncertainties in the models. A comparison of satellite observations and model experiments shows that the disagreement is due to the role of atmospheric feedbacks, which are not well captured in the observational space-for-time approach.

    • Liang Chen
    •  & Paul A. Dirmeyer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cracks in Arctic sea ice (leads) are becoming more prevalent and widespread, yet studies regarding their impacts on clouds are limited. Here, contrary to the present understanding, diverse observations and modelling simulations show that higher leads concentrations do not necessarily result in more low clouds.

    • Xia Li
    • , Steven K. Krueger
    •  & Sally Benson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Activities in cities are important drivers of global carbon fluxes. Here the authors trace the carbon metabolism in 16 global cities in terms of both physical and virtual carbon inflows, stock changes and outflows in relation to the supply chains of urban production and consumption and show that the total carbon impacts of global cities are found to be highly varied in either per capita, intensity or density measures.

    • Shaoqing Chen
    • , Bin Chen
    •  & Klaus Hubacek

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The seismic Gutenberg discontinuity has long been associated with the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary, yet the physical explanation of what is causing the discontinuity remains debated. Here, the authors report geochemical evidence, including Mg isotopes, and suggest that melting of recycled crust is responsible for the Gutenberg discontinuity.

    • Jia Liu
    • , Naoto Hirano
    •  & Teng Ding

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cloudinomorphs were one of the few groups to survive from the Ediacaran into the Cambrian, but they are known only from their external tubes. Here, Schiffbauer et al. report soft-tissue preservation of cloudinomorphs; the internal structures are interpreted as guts characteristic of bilaterians.

    • James D. Schiffbauer
    • , Tara Selly
    •  & Emily F. Smith

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this study, the authors use planktic foraminiferal data to reconstruct ocean carbonate chemistry and temperature from 16.5 to 11 Ma from a size in the tropical eastern Indian Ocean to look at the causes of the Monterey Excursion (ME). They find a positive relationship between dissolved inorganic (DIC) carbon and the ME and a negative one for DIC and the carbon maxima events.

    • S. M. Sosdian
    • , T. L. Babila
    •  & C. H. Lear

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How the translation speed of tropical cyclones has changed in recent decades and will change in the future has been the subject of debate. Model results show that on average, they have not slowed down in the past, but despite a slowing of tropical cyclones at higher latitudes, a poleward shift in their mean track location causes a general speed up under high greenhouse gas emissions.

    • Munehiko Yamaguchi
    • , Johnny C. L. Chan
    •  & Ryo Mizuta

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Forest management may play an important role in climate change mitigation. Here, Tong et al. combine remote sensing and machine learning modelling to map forest cover dynamics in southern China during 2002–2017, showing effects on carbon sequestration that are extensive but of uncertain longevity and possible negative impact on soil water.

    • Xiaowei Tong
    • , Martin Brandt
    •  & Rasmus Fensholt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The relationship between the coral animal and symbiotic algae is essential to coral health, and researchers are turning to Exaiptasia, a model cnidarian system, to study this relationship mechanistically. Here the authors find that endosymbiotic algae become limited by nitrogen at high population densities and provide the host with high levels of fixed carbon.

    • Tingting Xiang
    • , Erik Lehnert
    •  & Arthur R. Grossman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Seismology is a powerful tool to investigate Earth’s interior. Here, the authors combine numerical approaches with experimental results from previous studies to show a depth dependent behaviour of seismic waves in subducted oceanic crust in Earth’s mantle. The work challenges the currently accepted model of depth-independent seismic wave behaviour in oceanic crust.

    • Wenzhong Wang
    • , Yinhan Xu
    •  & Zhongqing Wu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Olivine crystals with prominent intracrystalline distortions have previously been used to quantify deformational processes within the mantle. Here, the authors show that similar techniques can be applied to deformed volcanic olivine crystals, providing quantitative constraints on the geometry of melt-rich mush piles within magmatic plumbing systems.

    • Penny E. Wieser
    • , Marie Edmonds
    •  & John Wheeler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cratons represent the ancient cores of continental plates and are generally thought to have been stable since the Archean. Here however, the authors combine seismic analysis with kimberlite data to infer complete destruction of cratonic lithosphere in some places of the African continent.

    • Nicolas Luca Celli
    • , Sergei Lebedev
    •  & Carmen Gaina

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Wind changes the surface of the Earth, but the surface characteristics of the planet also impact the winds above it. Here, the authors propose a feedback process in which wind erosion in the western Gobi Desert alters the thermal properties of the surface, which in turn increases near-surface winds.

    • Jordan T. Abell
    • , Alex Pullen
    •  & Gisela Winckler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The existence of regular decadal or longer climate oscillations has been the subject of intensive discussion. Here, statistical analysis of observational data and a large ensemble of model simulations show no evidence for longer-term internal oscillations that are distinguishable from climatic noise.

    • Michael E. Mann
    • , Byron A. Steinman
    •  & Sonya K. Miller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The increasingly prevalent view of magmatic systems as mush-dominated challenges the common assumption that melt inclusions record the pre-eruptive storage and processing of the melts they were erupted with. Here, the authors show that melt inclusions from Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai'i exhibit extreme compositional diversity, consistent with the accumulation of inclusion-bearing crystals in magmatic mush zones for >170 years before their eventual eruption in unrelated carrier melts.

    • Penny E. Wieser
    • , Marie Edmonds
    •  & Barbara E. Kunz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, Heaney et al. show that La Niña conditions are associated with higher than average incidence of childhood diarrheal disease in Botswana in the early rainy season. This finding could help to predict childhood diarrhea outbreaks in southern Africa.

    • Alexandra K. Heaney
    • , Jeffrey Shaman
    •  & Kathleen A. Alexander

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Antarctic ozone hole is decreasing in size due to policies implemented following the Montreal Protocol. Here, model simulations show that if recently discovered increase in unreported CFC-11 emissions continue, they could delay the recovery of the ozone hole by well over a decade.

    • S. S. Dhomse
    • , W. Feng
    •  & M. P. Chipperfield

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recent recession of the Larsen Ice Shelf C has revealed that microbial alteration of illite can occur within marine sediments, a process previously thought to only occur abiotically during low-grade metamorphism. Here, the authors show that such microbial alteration of illite could provide a potential source of Fe release to Southern Ocean waters during Holocene glacial cycles.

    • Jaewoo Jung
    • , Kyu-Cheul Yoo
    •  & Jinwook Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Nd isotope composition of seawater has been used to reconstruct past changes in the various contributions of different water masses to the deep ocean, with the isotope signatures of endmember water masses generally assumed to have been stable during the Quaternary. Here, the authors show that deep water produced in the North Atlantic had a significantly more radiogenic Nd signature during the Last Glacial Maximum compared to today.

    • Ning Zhao
    • , Delia W. Oppo
    •  & Lloyd D. Keigwin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) technology in geophysics is commonly known for applications such as active source seismic profiling in boreholes. Here, the authors convert the fiber optics cable into an ocean bottom seismic recording array with thousands of single component channels.

    • Ethan F. Williams
    • , María R. Fernández-Ruiz
    •  & Hugo F. Martins

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The relative role of the Deccan Traps volcanic activity versus the role of the Chicxulub impact event in terms of potential contributions to the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction has been subject to longstanding debate. Here, the authors observe a global signal of abruptly increased ocean temperatures and elevated [Hg] in the same biogenic carbonate specimens, prior to the impact event but aligning with the onset of Deccan volcanism.

    • Kyle W. Meyer
    • , Sierra V. Petersen
    •  & Ian Z. Winkelstern

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this study, a new analytical technique is employed to measure Kr and Xe isotopes in groundwater at high precision. These measurements indicate that gravitational signals of past water-table depth are preserved in ancient groundwater, representing a novel proxy for past terrestrial hydroclimate.

    • Alan M. Seltzer
    • , Jessica Ng
    •  & Jeffrey P. Severinghaus

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Past Indian summer monsoon (ISM) changes are not well understood. The application of an energetic framework to a transient model simulation shows that ISM influences have changed in the past, with rising water vapor more important during deglaciation, whereas cloud feedbacks dominated during the Holocene.

    • Chetankumar Jalihal
    • , Jayaraman Srinivasan
    •  & Arindam Chakraborty

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The D\({}^{{\prime\prime} }\) layer in the Earth’s lower mantle involves a seismic discontinuity which is often assigned to a mineral phase transition to post-perovskite, however, as this phase transition occurs over broad region the assignment of seismic boundaries remains unclear. Here, the authors find that due to the kinetics of the bridgmanite to post-perovskite transformation, thick transition layers can be detected by seismic reflections, unlike previously thought.

    • Christopher Langrand
    • , Denis Andrault
    •  & Sébastien Merkel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The relationships between ecosystem productivity and plant diversity are complex. Here, the authors show that sites with high productivity typically have reduced species diversity but high functional and phylogenetic diversity, potentially owing to the creation of additional niche space.

    • Philipp Brun
    • , Niklaus E. Zimmermann
    •  & Wilfried Thuiller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Earth’s carbon cycle and oceanic magnesium cycle are controlled by processes such as weathering, volcanism and precipitation of carbonates, such as dolomite. Here, the authors contradict the view that modern dolomite formation is rare and suggest instead that dolomite accounts for ~40–60% of the global oceanic Mg output in the last 20 Ma.

    • Netta Shalev
    • , Tomaso R. R. Bontognali
    •  & Derek Vance

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    The recent collapses of ice shelves in Antarctica due to warming make it essential to understand past ice shelf conditions and mechanisms. Here Smith and colleagues review the latest progress in deciphering the geological imprint of Antarctic ice shelves via sediments, landforms and proxy indicators.

    • James A. Smith
    • , Alastair G. C. Graham
    •  & Ross D. Powell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The contribution of symbiotic dinitrogen fixation to the forest carbon sink could change throughout forest succession. Here the authors model nitrogen cycling and light competition between trees based on data from Panamanian forest plots, showing that fixation contributes substantially to the carbon sink in early successional stages.

    • Jennifer H. Levy-Varon
    • , Sarah A. Batterman
    •  & Lars O. Hedin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Carbon dioxide removal technologies are often touted as a potential strategy to combat ocean acidification. However, the authors show here that these strategies are only effective when included as part of aggressive and rapid climate-action, undermining the idea of geoengineering as a panacea.

    • M. Hofmann
    • , S. Mathesius
    •  & H. J. Schellnhuber

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some of Earth’s earliest continental crust has been previously inferred to have formed from partial melting of hydrated mafic crust at pressures above 1.5 GPa (more than 50 km deep), pressures typically not reached in post-Archean continental crust. Here, the authors show that such high pressure signatures can result from melting of mantle sources rather than melting of crust, and they suggest there is a lack of evidence that Earth’s earliest crust melted at depths significantly below 40 km.

    • Robert H. Smithies
    • , Yongjun Lu
    •  & Marc Poujol

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors here perform experiments to investigate the dihedral angle of olivine-H2O and olivine-H2O-NaCl systems. The observed effect of NaCl to decrease dihedral angles allows fluids to percolate through forearc mantle wedge and to accumulate in the overlying crust, accounting for the high electrical conductivity anomalies in forearc regions.

    • Yongsheng Huang
    • , Takayuki Nakatani
    •  & Catherine McCammon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum constitutes one of the largest climate perturbations in Earth’s history, but its exact causes are not well known. New estimates of greenhouse gas fluxes from the North Atlantic Igneous Province at high temporal resolution show that they could have initiated this event.

    • Stephen M. Jones
    • , Murray Hoggett
    •  & Tom Dunkley Jones

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Robust estimates of either urban expansion worldwide or the effects of such phenomenon on terrestrial net primary productivity (NPP) are lacking. Here the authors used the new dataset of global land use to show that the global urban areas expanded largely between 2000 and 2010, which in turn reduced terrestrial NPP globally.

    • Xiaoping Liu
    • , Fengsong Pei
    •  & Zhu Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Climate affects dynamics of infectious diseases, but the impact on respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) epidemiology isn’t well understood. Here, Baker et al. model the influence of temperature, humidity and rainfall on RSV epidemiology in the USA and Mexico and predict impact of climate change on RSV dynamics.

    • Rachel E. Baker
    • , Ayesha S. Mahmud
    •  & Bryan T. Grenfell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lithium use in electronics has increased dramatically, but the environmental impacts are poorly understood. Here the authors show lithium in river and tap water in South Korea is coincident with population density, and that waste water treatment is ineffective at scrubbing this potential toxin.

    • Hye-Bin Choi
    • , Jong-Sik Ryu
    •  & Nathalie Vigier

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