Ocean sciences articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microbes structure biogeochemical cycles and food webs in the marine environment. Here, the authors sample coral reef-associated microbes across a 24-hour period, showing clear day–night patterns of microbial populations and thus calling for more studies to consider temporal variation in microbiomes at this scale.

    • Linda Wegley Kelly
    • , Craig E. Nelson
    •  & Forest Rohwer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While several studies have documented early warning signals of population collapse, the use of such signals as indicators of population recovery has not been investigated. Here the authors use models and empirical fisheries data to show that there are statistical indicators preceding recovery of cod populations.

    • Christopher F. Clements
    • , Michael A. McCarthy
    •  & Julia L. Blanchard

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A better understanding of typhoon–ocean interactions is critical for improving typhoon forecasts. Here the authors use data from two buoys that captured Super Typhoon Nepartak and combine it with numerical simulations to reveal the role of enhanced velocity shear in rapid upper-ocean cooling.

    • Yiing Jang Yang
    • , Ming-Huei Chang
    •  & Ching-Ling Wei

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors holistically examine prokaryote communities associated with diverse coral reef hosts, including sponges, nudibranchs, sea cucumbers, and corals. The results show that sponges have a relatively low diversity of prokaryotes, most of which are shared across a wide range of host taxa rather than being sponge-specific.

    • Daniel F. R. Cleary
    • , Thomas Swierts
    •  & Nicole J. de Voogd

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Findings regarding the impacts of ocean acidification (OA) on the growth and N2 fixation of Trichodesmium are conflicted. Here, the authors find that Trichodesmium growth rates decrease under OA primarily due to reduced nitrogenase efficiency and OA under RCP 8.5 could reduce the N2 fixation potential of Trichodesmium by 27%.

    • Ya-Wei Luo
    • , Dalin Shi
    •  & Futing Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The current paradigm of material transport across the ocean-floor by gravity currents, is of turbulent flows with mixing processes analogous to rivers. However, uniquely high-resolution field data demonstrate that this paradigm is flawed and that gravity currents are analogous to self-organised atmospheric jets.

    • R. M. Dorrell
    • , J. Peakall
    •  & D. Tezcan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Coral bleaching is generally linked to higher sea temperatures, but there may be geographic variation in this effect. Here, in a synthesis of global coral bleaching data, the authors show that bleaching probability is highest at mid-latitude sites despite equivalent thermal stress at equatorial sites.

    • S. Sully
    • , D. E. Burkepile
    •  & R. van Woesik

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lurgi et al. analyse the distribution of microbial symbionts across many sponge species and reveal modules of non-random associations which are primarily driven by host features and microbial phylogenies, and less by the environment. Results also show that metabolic functions are distinct across modules.

    • Miguel Lurgi
    • , Torsten Thomas
    •  & Jose M. Montoya

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chromatophores in cephalopod skin are known for fast changes in coloration due to light-scattering pigment granules. Here, authors demonstrate structural coloration facilitated by reflectin in sheath cells and offer insights into the interplay between structural and pigmentary coloration elements.

    • Thomas L. Williams
    • , Stephen L. Senft
    •  & Leila F. Deravi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Active Atlantic hurricane seasons are favoured by positive sea surface temperature anomalies. Here the authors identify a new air-sea heat flux driver for these anomalies in the severe 2017 season, while the recent 2005 and 2010 severe seasons were mainly driven by weakened ocean overturning circulation.

    • Samantha Hallam
    • , Robert Marsh
    •  & Joël J.-M. Hirschi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Particulate organic carbon (POC) fluxes in the oceans, particularly the Southern Ocean, remain poorly constrained. Here the authors modelled the potential underestimated flux of POC originating from Antarctic krill and discovered a seasonal krill faecal pellet export flux of 0.039 GT C yr-1 across the marginal ice zone (MIZ) of the Southern Ocean.

    • A. Belcher
    • , S. A. Henson
    •  & G. A. Tarling

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The geographical distribution and controlling factors of marine N2 fixation are understudied. Here the authors find increasing rates of N2 fixation from the Sargasso Sea to the coastal waters of North America, driven primarily by cyanobacterial diazotrophs and best correlated with phosphorus availability and chlorophyll-a concentrations.

    • Weiyi Tang
    • , Seaver Wang
    •  & Nicolas Cassar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Coccolithophores are one of the most abundant phytoplankton and calcifying organisms, well-known to produce intricate calcareous exoskeletons made of coccoliths. Here the authors show, by using X-ray nanotomography, the dependence of the grid size on the calcite nucleation site number and on the mass of coccoliths.

    • T. Beuvier
    • , I. Probert
    •  & A. Gibaud

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ferromanganese minerals are abundant in marine environments but the extent of these minerals in subseafloor sediments remains unknown. Here the authors find abundant ferromanganese microparticles in oxic pelagic clays, accounting for 14–16% of the new estimate of the global manganese budget (9.2–47.4 Tt).

    • Go-Ichiro Uramoto
    • , Yuki Morono
    •  & Fumio Inagaki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Changes in chlorophyll-a are used as an indirect proxy for monitoring global changes in marine phytoplankton. Here the authors show that remote sensing reflectance (RRS), such as the ratio of upwelling versus downwelling light at the ocean’s surface, has a stronger and earlier climate-change-driven signal over the 21st century.

    • Stephanie Dutkiewicz
    • , Anna E. Hickman
    •  & Erwan Monier

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The spatio-temporal distributions of these plastics are not fully characterized. Here the authors examined the sources, sinks and pathways and projected microplastic concentrations for 2066 and found that most plastics accumulate in the North Pacific, with the highest concentrations predicted in the East Asia Seas and central North Pacific.

    • Atsuhiko Isobe
    • , Shinsuke Iwasaki
    •  & Tadashi Tokai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ocean warming contributes to the thinning of the Antarctic ice shelves, however, lack of observations has prevented a quantification of this contribution. Here the authors use geological records to show that 0.3–1.5 °C ocean warming has played a central role on regional ice shelf instability over the last 9000 years.

    • Johan Etourneau
    • , Giovanni Sgubin
    •  & Jung-Hyun Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The extreme coastal El Niño of March 2017 caused devastating flooding in coastal Peru but its mechanism remains unclear. Here the authors investigate the physical processes using observations and model simulations and suggest that such extreme coastal flooding is predictable and will become more frequent as climate warms.

    • Qihua Peng
    • , Shang-Ping Xie
    •  & Hong Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The upper-ocean warming, a consequence of anthropogenic global warming, is changing the global wave climate, making waves stronger. Here the author show that global wave power has been increasing and can represent a climate change indicator.

    • Borja G. Reguero
    • , Iñigo J. Losada
    •  & Fernando J. Méndez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In late 2016, there was a sudden and subsequently sustained decrease of Antarctic sea ice extent. Analyses of observations and a model simulation trace the causes to teleconnections from the tropics on the interannual timescale combined with decadal-timescale warming in the upper Southern Ocean.

    • Gerald A. Meehl
    • , Julie M. Arblaster
    •  & Cecilia M. Bitz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Particulate optical backscattering is key to studying the oceanic carbon pump though it remains unclear what particles are detected. Here the authors show that complex particles larger than 1 µm help reproduce all the measured backscattering across the Atlantic Ocean and explain the majority of the signal.

    • Emanuele Organelli
    • , Giorgio Dall’Olmo
    •  & Annick Bricaud

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Locations in the ocean where CO2 naturally seeps from the seafloor can be used to infer potential responses to ocean acidification. Here the authors explore the functional composition of benthic communities along a natural CO2 gradient, showing a loss of functional diversity at high-CO2 sites.

    • Nuria Teixidó
    • , Maria Cristina Gambi
    •  & Enric Ballesteros

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Day-night cycles in the biochemical composition of phytoplankton remain poorly understood. Here, Becker et al. use lipidomic and transcriptomic data from the North Pacific subtropical gyre to describe a daily cycle of production and consumption of energy-rich lipids by eukaryotic phytoplankton.

    • Kevin W. Becker
    • , James R. Collins
    •  & Benjamin A. S. Van Mooy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The rare noble gas isotope 39Ar is the ideal tracer to investigate the ventilation of the deep ocean in the time range of 50 to 1000 years. Here the authors constrain transit time distributions in the eastern Tropical Atlantic with 39Ar-measurements done on a sample size of 5 L of water utilising modern atom-optical techniques.

    • Sven Ebser
    • , Arne Kersting
    •  & Markus K. Oberthaler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Gene pairs that are coexpressed across various environmental conditions in multiple species suggest functional similarity. Here the authors analyze patterns of gene expression co-evolution across diverse eukaryotes, and identify hundreds of protein complexes and pathways whose gene expression levels have co-evolved since their ancient divergence.

    • Trevor Martin
    •  & Hunter B. Fraser

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Indian Ocean provides a unique environmental gradient to test underlying drivers of the elemental composition of particulate organic matter. Here the authors show that nutrient supply, over temperature and biodiversity changes, controls regional variation of elemental ratios in the tropical Indian Ocean.

    • Catherine A. Garcia
    • , Steven E. Baer
    •  & Adam C. Martiny

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Short-lived three-dimensional submesoscale currents, responsible for swirling ocean color chlorophyll filaments, have long been thought to affect productivity. Current research suggests they may not be effective in enhancing phytoplankton growth, but may have important contributions to biodiversity.

    • Marina Lévy
    • , Peter J. S. Franks
    •  & K. Shafer Smith

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Marine sedimentary records and the proxies within play a central role in unlocking our understanding of past climates, yet interpreting the signals they contain can be complex. Here, the authors reveal and discuss the complex effects of hydrodynamics on carbon accumulation in the sediments off the Iberian margin.

    • Clayton R. Magill
    • , Blanca Ausín
    •  & Timothy I. Eglinton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Scotia Sea, located in the Southern Ocean, is a major hotspot for the drawdown of atmospheric CO2. Here, the authors show that the strength of the carbonate counter pump doubles when shelled pteropods dominate the plankton calcifier community, counteracting the amount of CO2 transferred to the deep ocean.

    • C. Manno
    • , F. Giglio
    •  & G. A. Tarling

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It has recently been found that stress hormones accumulate in the earwax of whales. Here, the authors use these signatures of stress along with time series of ocean warming and whaling pressure to demonstrate that both stressors were correlated with baleen whale stress over several decades.

    • Stephen J. Trumble
    • , Stephanie A. Norman
    •  & Sascha Usenko

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mid-Holocene climate was characterized by strong summer solar heating that decreased Arctic sea ice cover. Here the authors show that this sea ice loss had profound effects on the climate system, distinct from direct effects of solar heating, over North America, northern Asia, and the North Atlantic.

    • Hyo-Seok Park
    • , Seong-Joong Kim
    •  & Seok-Woo Son

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pacific oyster mortality syndrome is a poorly understood cause of mortality in commercially important oyster species. Here, the authors use multiple infection experiments to show that the syndrome is caused by sequential infection by herpesvirus and opportunistic bacteria.

    • Julien de Lorgeril
    • , Aude Lucasson
    •  & Guillaume Mitta

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The structure of turbidity currents has remained unresolved mainly due to lack of observations. Here the authors present data from a high-resolution monitoring array deployed for 18 months over Monterey Bay, that suggests turbidity currents are driven by dense near-bed layers.

    • Charles K. Paull
    • , Peter J. Talling
    •  & Matthieu J. Cartigny

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Southern Ocean is critically important for global climate yet poorly represented by climate models. Here the authors trace sea surface temperature biases in this region to cloud-related errors in atmospheric-model simulated surface heat fluxes and provide a pathway to improve the models.

    • Patrick Hyder
    • , John M. Edwards
    •  & Stephen E. Belcher

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It has been suggested that deep coral reefs offer a refuge against warming and mass bleaching. Here Frade et al. look at the 2016 bleaching event in the northern Great Barrier Reef and found that deep reefs initially acted as thermal refuges, though this effect lessened in the late summer months.

    • Pedro R. Frade
    • , Pim Bongaerts
    •  & Ove Hoegh-Guldberg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The mechanisms responsible for the burial of vast quantities of organic matter during Ocean Anoxic Event remain unclear. Here, the authors combine biogeochemical analysis and modeling and show that sulfurization could play a critical role in facilitating globally elevated burial of organic matter.

    • Morgan Reed Raven
    • , David A. Fike
    •  & Harry-Luke O. McClelland

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Methane venting is a widespread phenomenon at the Cascadia margin, however a comprehensive database of methane vents at this margin is lacking. Here the authors show that the margin-wide average methane flow-rate ranges from ~4 × 106 to ~1590 × 106 kg y−1 and is on average around 88 ± 6 × 106 kg y−1.

    • M. Riedel
    • , M. Scherwath
    •  & G. D. Spence

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Discharge from Greenland is known to deliver nutrients to the marine environment. Here, the authors show that the majority of the nutrients fueling summertime productivity downstream of Greenland’s glaciers seemingly originate from entrainment in subglacial discharge plumes rather than from meltwater itself.

    • M. J. Hopwood
    • , D. Carroll
    •  & E. P. Achterberg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in aquatic systems is among the most complex molecular mixtures known. Here the authors show that a major component in DOM is molecularly indistinguishable in marine and freshwater environments, which could reflect universal mechanisms behind long-term DOM turnover.

    • Maren Zark
    •  & Thorsten Dittmar

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