Earth and environmental sciences articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Deforestation carbon emissions from the Brazilian Amazon have declined steeply, but how much drought-induced forest fire emissions add to this process is still unclear. Here the authors show that gross emissions from forest fires are more than half as great as those from deforestation during drought years.

    • Luiz E. O. C. Aragão
    • , Liana O. Anderson
    •  & Sassan Saatchi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Climate impact assessments usually rely on modeling approaches that are either comprehensive but inflexible and inefficient, or lacking sufficient detail. Here the authors describe a framework to assess multi-sectoral climate impacts and show its capability and timely responsiveness to new policies.

    • Erwan Monier
    • , Sergey Paltsev
    •  & Martin Haigh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The use of drones to deliver commercial packages is poised to become a new industry. Here the authors show that replacing truck delivery by drones can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy use when the drone size and additional warehousing requirements are limited.

    • Joshuah K. Stolaroff
    • , Constantine Samaras
    •  & Daniel Ceperley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The concentration of Ni and Cr of the continental crust cannot be explained by formation models involving differentiated magmatic rocks. Here, the authors show that hydrothermal alteration and chemical weathering of ultramafic rock compensates for the low Ni and Cr concentrations of island arc-type magmatic rocks.

    • Andreas Beinlich
    • , Håkon Austrheim
    •  & Andrew Putnis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Exposure to ambient particulate matter is a key contributor to disease in India and source attribution is vital for pollution control. Here the authors use a high-resolution regional model to show residential emissions dominate particulate matter concentrations and associated premature mortality.

    • Luke Conibear
    • , Edward W. Butt
    •  & Dominick V. Spracklen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Triggers of gas hydrate instability along continental margins remain debated. Here, via numerical simulations, the authors show that pulses in sedimentation, rather than bottom water temperature or sea level change, likely triggered gas hydrate dissociation offshore Norway at the end of the last glaciation.

    • Jens Karstens
    • , Haflidi Haflidason
    •  & Jürgen Mienert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Measuring gravitational and inertial acceleration in a moving platform is important for sensing and navigation but is also very challenging. Here the authors demonstrate the ship-borne absolute gravity acceleration measurements using an atom interferometer.

    • Y. Bidel
    • , N. Zahzam
    •  & M. F. Lequentrec-Lalancette

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The morphology and abundance of streams control the rates of hydraulic and biogeochemical exchange between streams, groundwater and the atmosphere. Here, the authors show that stream hydromorphology is predictable within headwater catchments with implications for stream-atmosphere gas exchange estimates.

    • George H. Allen
    • , Tamlin M. Pavelsky
    •  & Colin J. Gleason

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Inundation and erosion could make many atoll islands uninhabitable over the next century. Here the authors present an analysis of change in the atoll nation of Tuvalu that shows a 2.9% increase in land area over the past four decades, with 74% of islands increasing in size, despite rising sea levels.

    • Paul S. Kench
    • , Murray R. Ford
    •  & Susan D. Owen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aerosol pollution from shipping contributes to cooling but also leads to premature mortality and morbidity. Here the authors combine emission inventories, atmospheric models and health risk functions to show how cleaner marine fuels will reduce premature deaths and childhood asthma but results in larger warming.

    • Mikhail Sofiev
    • , James J. Winebrake
    •  & James J. Corbett

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Afforestation is often used to increase terrestrial carbon sequestration and restore ecosystem services. Here, the authors show that afforestation can also neutralize soil pH by lowering pH in alkaline soil but raising pH in acid soil, thus further promoting the restoration of ecosystem functions.

    • Songbai Hong
    • , Shilong Piao
    •  & Hui Zeng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some basaltic melts become first superheated upon their ascent towards the Earth’s surface and then saturated in chromite alone after cooling in shallow chambers. Here the authors show that large volumes of these chromite-only-saturated melts are responsible for monomineralic layers of massive chromitites in layered intrusions.

    • Rais Latypov
    • , Gelu Costin
    •  & Tony Naldrett

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It remains unclear whether surface water partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) in continental shelves tracks with increasing atmospheric pCO2. Here, the authors show that pCO2 in shelf waters lags behind rising atmospheric CO2 in a number of shelf regions, suggesting shelf uptake of atmospheric CO2.

    • Goulven G. Laruelle
    • , Wei-Jun Cai
    •  & Pierre Regnier

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plant growing season increases under a warming climate, but it is not known whether this will alter plant exposure to frost days. Here Liu et al. investigate trends in the Northern Hemisphere over 30 years and find increased exposure to frost days in regions that have longer growing seasons.

    • Qiang Liu
    • , Shilong Piao
    •  & Tao Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Knowledge of surface-ocean circulation in the Atlantic over the late Holocene is incomplete. Here, the authors show that Atlantic Ocean surface-circulation varied in concert with Western Hemisphere rainfall anomalies on centennial timescales and that this link played an essential role during the Little Ice Age.

    • Kaustubh Thirumalai
    • , Terrence M. Quinn
    •  & Eduardo Moreno-Chamarro

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Earth’s mantle undergoes changes as temperature and pressure increase with depth. Here, the authors present a global interrogation of reflectors in the Earth’s mid-mantle revealing a significant variation in their properties, with widespread compositional heterogeneity and seismic velocity in the mid-mantle, which signify contrasting styles of mantle flow.

    • Lauren Waszek
    • , Nicholas C. Schmerr
    •  & Maxim D. Ballmer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Marine microbial eukaryotes and zooplankton display enormous diversity and largely unexplored physiologies. Here, the authors use metatranscriptomics to analyze four organismal size fractions from open-ocean stations, providing the largest reference collection of eukaryotic transcripts from any single biome.

    • Quentin Carradec
    • , Eric Pelletier
    •  & Patrick Wincker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crystals can record the timing of volcanic eruptive triggers at depth by examining their zoning histories. Here, the authors analyse clinopyroxene crystal zoning from eruptions at Mount Etna, Italy from 1974-2014 and show that the intrusion of magma can trigger an eruption within 2 weeks of arrival.

    • Teresa Ubide
    •  & Balz S. Kamber

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The global impact of seabird populations on nutrient cycles is poorly understood. Here, the authors use a bioenergetic model and a global seabird population inventory to estimate the amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus excreted by seabirds and estimate them to be 591 Gg N y−1 and 99 Gg P y−1 respectively.

    • Xosé Luis Otero
    • , Saul De La Peña-Lastra
    •  & Miguel Angel Huerta-Diaz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Modulation of ambient PM2.5 exposure and premature mortality burden in India under climate change scenarios is unclear. Here the authors show that the premature mortality burden is projected to decrease in 2100 relative to present day under all possible combined climate change and socioeconomic pathways scenarios.

    • Sourangsu Chowdhury
    • , Sagnik Dey
    •  & Kirk R. Smith

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ocean heat is important in forcing ice sheet retreat, yet past ocean temperature data from proximal ice sheet locations are sparse. Here, the authors present temperature reconstructions from the Wilkes Land subglacial basin during the mid-Miocene, and show that warm waters sustained ice sheet retreat 17–14.8 Ma.

    • Francesca Sangiorgi
    • , Peter K. Bijl
    •  & Henk Brinkhuis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Past sea-level records serve as an important baseline of natural variability in sea level and global ice volume prior to the Anthropocene. Here, the authors reconstruct relative sea-level changes over the last 6000 years based on coral microatolls, which are the most accurate low-tide recorders.

    • N. Hallmann
    • , G. Camoin
    •  & J. Fietzke

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Whether marine microbes form strongly differentiated communities over time remains unknown. Here, Martin-Platero and colleagues develop a time series analysis to characterize marine bacteria and Eukarya communities at a fine temporal grain, revealing cohesive but rapidly changing communities.

    • Antonio M. Martin-Platero
    • , Brian Cleary
    •  & Martin F. Polz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sea butterflies, or pteropods, are often presented as being at threat from ocean acidification on account of their fragile shells being susceptible to dissolution. Here the authors show that pteropods are able to perform extensive repair to damaged shells, suggesting they may not be as vulnerable as previously thought.

    • Victoria L. Peck
    • , Rosie L. Oakes
    •  & Geraint A. Tarling

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The effect of CO2 concentrations on 13C/12C ratios in C3 plants, comprising most of Earth’s vegetation, is currently debated. Here, using ice core records and plant and animal fossils, Hare et al. find evidence for a pCO2 effect, with implications for palaeoecology and plant responses to climate change.

    • Vincent J. Hare
    • , Emma Loftus
    •  & Christopher Bronk Ramsey

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Feedbacks between desert dust and climate might have amplified past climate changes, yet their role in future climate change is unclear. Here the authors find that dust feedbacks could play a key role in the future climates of Northern Africa, the Sahel, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

    • Jasper F. Kok
    • , Daniel S. Ward
    •  & Amato T. Evan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The drivers of North Atlantic phytoplankton bloom have been debated for decades, partially owing to incomplete sub-surface observations. Here, Mignot et al. use robotic sensors to provide detailed observations of developing blooms and to explore the drivers of different phases of plankton growth.

    • A. Mignot
    • , R. Ferrari
    •  & H. Claustre

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The climate impacts of deforestation due to changes in biogenic volatile organic compound emissions, which act as short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs), are poorly understood. Here the authors show that including the impact SLCFs increases the projected warming associated with idealised deforestation scenarios.

    • C. E. Scott
    • , S. A. Monks
    •  & C. Wilson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recently, an eDNA metabarcoding data set was used to describe northern high-latitude vegetation during the past 50,000 years. Here, Zobel et al. use the data set to examine how the abundance of key plant mutualistic traits changed during this period and discuss possible environmental drivers.

    • Martin Zobel
    • , John Davison
    •  & Mari Moora

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Body size is hypothesised to be a major determinant of β-diversity in passively-dispersing marine organisms. Here, Villarino et al. show that plankton body size determines rates of dispersal along marine currents, with shorter dispersal and higher species spatial turnover in larger organisms.

    • Ernesto Villarino
    • , James R. Watson
    •  & Guillem Chust

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Gas hydrates are maintained via a balance of temperature and pressure, if this changes then destabilization may occur. Here, the authors show instead that due to recent changes in the salinity of the sea water of the Black Sea, gas hydrates may become destabilized with widespread methane seepage.

    • Vincent Riboulot
    • , Stephan Ker
    •  & Gabriel Ion

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Within sediments in deep ocean trenches an earthquake record may be observed. Here, the authors present 14C data on bulk organic carbon (OC) and thermal decomposition from a sediment core in the Japan Trench and match OC values with known earthquake events.

    • Rui Bao
    • , Michael Strasser
    •  & Timothy I. Eglinton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Methane seepage from continental slopes has been attributed to gas hydrate dissociation induced by anthropogenic bottom water warming. Here, the authors show that hydrates dissociated before the Anthropocene when the isostatic rebound induced by deglaciation of the Arctic ice sheet outpaced eustatic sea-level rise.

    • Klaus Wallmann
    • , M. Riedel
    •  & G. Bohrmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The supply of CO2 to large marine phytoplankton cells is potentially limited by their diffusive boundary layer. Here, using direct microelectrode measurements, the authors show that extracellular carbonic anhydrase acts to maintain the concentration of CO2 at the cell surface to overcome this problem.

    • Abdul Chrachri
    • , Brian M. Hopkinson
    •  & Glen L. Wheeler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    During planetary formation segregation of an iron core from rocky silicates takes place. Here, the authors use analogue fluid experiments show that iron diapirs entrain volatiles and silicates to the Earth’s core and initiate buoyant thermochemical plumes to reoxidize and hydrate the upper mantle and atmosphere.

    • J. R. Fleck
    • , C. L. Rains
    •  & P. L. Olson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Evidence of inverted trophic pyramids in marine food webs has been enigmatic owing to lack of theoretical support. Here, Woodson et al. use metabolic and size-spectra theory to show that inverted pyramids are possible when food webs have generalist predators and consumers with large body sizes.

    • C. Brock Woodson
    • , John R. Schramski
    •  & Samantha B. Joye

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metagenomic sequencing provides a window into microbial community structure and metabolic potential. Here, Swenson et al. integrate metabolomics and shotgun sequencing to functionally link microbial community structure with environmental chemistry in biological soil crust (biocrust).

    • Tami L. Swenson
    • , Ulas Karaoz
    •  & Trent R. Northen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The timing of clouds is critical to the Earth’s energy balance. Here the authors show that in current climate models, clouds over the land tend to peak too early in the morning, reflecting less solar radiation than observed.

    • Jun Yin
    •  & Amilcare Porporato

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Prioritising areas for conservation is hindered by disagreements over ecological targets. Here, Armsworth et al. combine a simulation approach and case study to test if considering economic return on investment aids in prioritisation, and find that its impact on reaching agreements varies greatly.

    • Paul R. Armsworth
    • , Heather B. Jackson
    •  & Nathan A. Sutton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Climate oscillations affect weather on different temporal-spatial scales, which poses difficulty in understanding how they influence tree reproduction. Here Ascoli et al. show relationships between low- and high-frequency components of the NAO and masting in two European tree species across multiple decades.

    • Davide Ascoli
    • , Giorgio Vacchiano
    •  & Andrew Hacket-Pain

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Changes in climatology and perturbation will lead to different impacts on regional climate change, but their effect remains a subject of debate. Here the authors develop a new downscaling procedure that reveals the importance of both changes on the regional climate and examines their nonlinear effect.

    • Sachiho A. Adachi
    • , Seiya Nishizawa
    •  & Hirofumi Tomita

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) drives biological responses in terrestrial ecosystems through oscillatory modes of climatic variability. Here, the authors show how landscape scale productivity responses to NAO are contingent upon the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation in southwestern Europe.

    • Jaime Madrigal-González
    • , Juan A. Ballesteros-Cánovas
    •  & Miguel A. Zavala

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The drivers of the increase in atmospheric methane since 2006 remain unclear. Here, the authors use satellite and in situ measurements of CO and CH4 to show that fossil fuels and biogenic sources contribute 12–19 Tg CH4per year and 12–16 Tg CH4per year respectively to the recent atmospheric methane increase.

    • John R. Worden
    • , A. Anthony Bloom
    •  & Thomas Röckmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ions produced by cosmic rays have been thought to influence aerosol and cloud processes by an unknown mechanism. Here the authors show that the mass flux of ions to aerosols enhances their growth significantly, with implications for the formation of cloud condensation nuclei.

    • H. Svensmark
    • , M. B. Enghoff
    •  & J. Svensmark

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