Earth and environmental sciences articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The world’s tropical forests represent a terrestrial carbon sink, yet its size is uncertain. Espírito-Santo et al.characterize full Amazon disturbances combining forest inventories and remote sensing data, and use statistical modelling to quantify the Amazon aboveground forest carbon balance.

    • Fernando D.B. Espírito-Santo
    • , Manuel Gloor
    •  & Oliver L. Phillips

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Visualization of magma in a conduit with classical probes remains challenging due to geological heterogeneity and the geometrical structure of the conduit involved. Tanaka et al.use cosmic ray muons and report the first radiographic observation of the ascent and descent of magma along a conduit.

    • Hiroyuki K. M. Tanaka
    • , Taro Kusagaya
    •  & Hiroshi Shinohara

  • Article |

    Despite commonly occurring on Earth and other terrestrial bodies, mass wasting processes are poorly understood, hampering hazard assessment and mitigation. Lucas and colleagues propose a universal velocity-weakening friction law capable of describing the behaviour of small to large landslides.

    • Antoine Lucas
    • , Anne Mangeney
    •  & Jean Paul Ampuero

  • Article |

    Sedimentary rocks record planetary environmental history convolved with the internal dynamics of depositional landscapes. Ganti et al.show that the advection length of settling sediment sets bounds on internal landscape dynamics, providing a new tool to unravel sedimentary archives.

    • Vamsi Ganti
    • , Michael P. Lamb
    •  & Brandon McElroy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation strongly influences Northern Hemisphere climate, yet its primary driver is poorly understood. Knudsen et al.analyse proxy records from the past ~450 years and show that external forcing has dominated control of the oscillation since the termination of the Little Ice Age.

    • Mads Faurschou Knudsen
    • , Bo Holm Jacobsen
    •  & Jesper Olsen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The effectiveness of climate engineering in averting potentially catastrophic climate change has thus far been poorly evaluated. Keller et al. use an Earth system model to show that five different climate engineering scenarios are likely to have either a limited impact or potentially severe side effects.

    • David P. Keller
    • , Ellias Y. Feng
    •  & Andreas Oschlies

  • Article |

    Modelling studies suggest that oceanic mesoscale eddies play an important role in the global transport of heat and salt, yet there are few direct observations. Dong et al.present a method to calculate eddy transport through the use of satellite data and Argo profiles and confirm model-based estimates.

    • Changming Dong
    • , James C. McWilliams
    •  & Dake Chen

  • Article |

    The microbes responsible for releasing the potent greenhouse gas methane from thawing permafrost remain largely unknown. Mondav and Woodcroft et al. investigate methane flux across a thaw gradient in Sweden and recover a near-complete genome of the dominant methanogen Candidatus ‘Methanoflorens stordalenmirensis’.

    • Rhiannon Mondav
    • , Ben J. Woodcroft
    •  & Gene W. Tyson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ocean acidification is affecting the stability of coral reefs, but the exact mineralogical response is poorly understood. Diaz-Pulido et al.show that, under warming conditions, the relative abundance of dolomite increases by as much as 200% and could therefore slow the climate-induced break-up of coral reefs.

    • Guillermo Diaz-Pulido
    • , Merinda C. Nash
    •  & Ulrike Troitzsch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding dyke thickness distributions is essential to quantify magma transport rates and improve eruption forecasting. Krumbholz et al.show that dyke thicknesses are Weibull-distributed and identify host-rock strength as the primary parameter that controls dyke emplacement.

    • Michael Krumbholz
    • , Christoph F. Hieronymus
    •  & Nadine Friese

  • Article |

    Wind power installations have boomed across Europe in recent decades, yet the potentially negative impact of wind farms on climate remains largely untested. Vautard et al. parameterize operational and planned European wind farms in a regional climate model and show limited regional-scale climate impacts.

    • Robert Vautard
    • , Françoise Thais
    •  & Paolo Michele Ruti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mesopelagic fishes dominate the global fishes biomass, yet there exist major uncertainties regarding their global biomass. Irigoien et al.analyse acoustic data collected during a circumglobal cruise and show that biomass estimates should be raised by an order of magnitude.

    • Xabier Irigoien
    • , T. A. Klevjer
    •  & S. Kaartvedt

  • Article |

    Iron emitted from hydrothermal vents is stabilized by organic matter and dispersed into the world ocean, yet the pathways leading to iron–carbon interactions are unknown. Dick et al.propose that a new ‘microbial iron pump’ is responsible for converting hydrothermal iron into bioavailable forms.

    • Meng Li
    • , Brandy M. Toner
    •  & Gregory J. Dick

  • Article |

    Humans have influenced the shaping of the landscape for generations, yet disentangling these influences from those of climate is a challenge. Giguet-Covex et al.take the novel approach of using lake sediment DNA to reconstruct a detailed picture of human land use since the Neolithic Period.

    • Charline Giguet-Covex
    • , Johan Pansu
    •  & Pierre Taberlet

  • Article |

    Species response to environmental change can have an impact on community assemblages and ecosystem functioning. Here, the authors assess the combined impact of regional land use and climate change on bird functional diversity and find that global changes may lead to uniform species assemblages across Europe.

    • Wilfried Thuiller
    • , Samuel Pironon
    •  & Niklaus E. Zimmermann

  • Article |

    Methane emission occurs in natural wetlands on a large scale, but the corresponding trace element emissions have not been studied. Here, the authors study selenium and arsenic emission in a pristine peatland and show that this causes large amounts of those trace elements to enter the biogeochemical cycle.

    • Bas Vriens
    • , Markus Lenz
    •  & Lenny H.E. Winkel

  • Article |

    Plutonium and caesium radioisotopes have been injected into the atmosphere during nuclear weapon tests and via other anthropogenic sources. Alvarado et al. show that volcanic eruptions can redistribute those isotopes in the lower atmosphere, using the Eyjafjallajökull eruption as an example.

    • J. A. Corcho Alvarado
    • , P. Steinmann
    •  & P. Froidevaux

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Clay-sized particles bind organic matter and sequester carbon and nitrogen in soils, yet extent and localization of organic matter coverage remain unclear. Using NanoSIMS, Vogel et al.chemically image soils at ultra-high resolution and show that only particles with rough surfaces react with organic matter.

    • Cordula Vogel
    • , Carsten W. Mueller
    •  & Ingrid Kögel-Knabner

  • Article |

    The precise contributions of solar forcing, the carbon cycle and glaciation to the pacing of global climate remains unresolved. Using four 3D ice-sheet models, de Boer et al.show that Antarctic ice volume and carbon-cycle dynamics varied coherently during the Pleistocene, as has been observed in the Miocene.

    • B. de Boer
    • , Lucas J. Lourens
    •  & Roderik S.W. van de Wal

  • Article |

    Africa is one of the fastest growing regions for the voluntary carbon market. Here, Greve et al.quantify the potential for aboveground C stocking across tropical Africa and assess the optimal placement of carbon-stocking projects when also taking co-benefits and feasibility into account.

    • Michelle Greve
    • , Belinda Reyers
    •  & Jens-Christian Svenning

  • Article |

    Kimberlite, an igneous rock in which the majority of the world’s diamonds are found, has been reported on all major continents barring Antarctica. Yaxley et al. present mineralogical and chemical data that confirms the first bona fidediscovery of kimberlite in the Antarctic.

    • Gregory M. Yaxley
    • , Vadim S. Kamenetsky
    •  & Marc Norman

  • Article |

    The radioactive element uranium tends to accumulate in wetland soils in the insoluble and immobile tetravalent form. Wang et al. show that uranium(IV) can associate with highly mobile organic- and iron(II)-bearing colloids and that its mobility in organic-rich environments may be severely underestimated.

    • Yuheng Wang
    • , Manon Frutschi
    •  & Rizlan Bernier-Latmani

  • Article |

    Recent increases in the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) content of northern aquatic systems are likely to lead to increases in CO2 emissions, yet the mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, evidence from hundreds of Canadian aquatic systems suggests a causal link between DOC concentrations and CO2flux.

    • Jean-François Lapierre
    • , François Guillemette
    •  & Paul A. del Giorgio

  • Article |

    The global monsoon is considered to have provided an important interhemispheric climate link during deglaciation, but direct evidence is lacking. Here, climate evidence from speleothems suggests that rapid latitudinal displacements of the Australasian monsoon play a key role in deglacial warming.

    • Linda K. Ayliffe
    • , Michael K. Gagan
    •  & Bambang W. Suwargadi

  • Article |

    Totten Glacier discharges the largest volume of ice in East Antarctica, but the mechanisms causing its recent thinning are relatively unknown. Khazendar et al.combine remote-sensing data with high-resolution ice–ocean modelling to link this recent thinning to reduced sea ice production in polynyas.

    • A. Khazendar
    • , M.P. Schodlok
    •  & M.R. van den Broeke

  • Article |

    The El Niño-Southern Oscillation is one of the largest sources of global climate variability, yet our understanding relative to the Topical Pacific mean state is poor. Here, geochemical analyses of marine plankton reveal a strong link between zonal sea-surface temperatures and ENSO variability.

    • Aleksey Yu Sadekov
    • , Raja Ganeshram
    •  & Alexander W. Tudhope

  • Article |

    Obsidian lava flows accompanied some of Earth’s most powerful eruptions, yet an active advancing flow field has never been observed. Tuffen et al.present four-dimensional models of the lava flow following the 2011 eruption of Cordón Caulle, Chile, and provide new insights into silicic lava flow dynamics.

    • Hugh Tuffen
    • , Mike R. James
    •  & C. Ian Schipper

  • Article |

    With the exception of one occurrence, carbonatites worldwide are curiously deficient in alkalis. Here, Chen et al.present new melt inclusion data from plutonic relics in Canada that hint at a wider prevalence of alkali-enriched parental carbonatite in the geological record than previously thought.

    • Wei Chen
    • , Vadim S. Kamenetsky
    •  & Antonio Simonetti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The mechanism by which Mars lost its early dense and carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere remains relatively unknown. Here, via mineralogical analysis of the Lafayette Martian meteorite, Tomkinson et al. infer that carbonation was an effective carbon dioxide sequestration mechanism on an early, water-rich Mars.

    • Tim Tomkinson
    • , Martin R. Lee
    •  & Caroline L. Smith

  • Article |

    The presence of earthworms in soil may significantly increase CO2 emissions, but the impacts of earthworms on net carbon sequestration are poorly understood. Zhang et al. introduce a new concept by which the effects of earthworms on the balance of carbon mineralization and stabilization can be quantified.

    • Weixin Zhang
    • , Paul F. Hendrix
    •  & Shenglei Fu

  • Article |

    Isoprene and monoterpenes, emitted by terrestrial plants, have an important role in both plant biology and environment, but they are poorly quantified at the ecosystem level. Peñuelas et al.show that the photochemical reflectance index can be used to indirectly estimate foliar isoprenoid emissions remotely.

    • Josep Peñuelas
    • , Giovanni Marino
    •  & Iolanda Filella

  • Article |

    Deep oceanic crust could host a wealth of microbial life, but biogeochemical reactions therein are poorly understood. Orcutt et al.combine measurements of sedimentary oxygen and pore water chemistry from basement crust with a reactive transport box model to shed light on oxygen consumption in basaltic crust.

    • Beth N. Orcutt
    • , C. Geoffrey Wheat
    •  & Wolfgang Bach

  • Article |

    Humans have greatly altered the distribution of forests across the world. Here, the authors use estimates of tree cover from remote-sensing data to reveal that human impact has produced a strong tendency for forest remnants to persist primarily on sloped terrain.

    • Brody Sandel
    •  & Jens-Christian Svenning

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Before the mass extinction that characterized the Late Triassic period, there were a series of biotic turnover events, the cause of which are the subject of debate. Sato et al. present geochemical evidence in support of the theory that extraterrestrial impacts had an important role in these events.

    • Honami Sato
    • , Tetsuji Onoue
    •  & Katsuhiko Suzuki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The astronomical time scale is an essential geochronological tool, but is presently limited to the Cenozoic and Mesozoic eras. Here, Wuet al.time-calibrate Milankovitch cycles identified in strata from South China and extend this essential tool into the late Permian.

    • Huaichun Wu
    • , Shihong Zhang
    •  & Tianshui Yang

  • Article |

    Sedimentation along convergent plate margins, the destructive sites of tectonic plate collision, is poorly understood. Malatestaet al.use a cutting-edge three-dimensional subduction model to demonstrate that the trench-parallel motion of sediments has a much more important role than previously thought.

    • Cristina Malatesta
    • , Taras Gerya
    •  & Giovanni Capponi

  • Article |

    Methane is a major constituent of planetary interiors, yet phase relations in the C–H system are poorly understood. This work documents the chemical reactivity of the C–H system over a wide range of temperatures and pressures, and sheds light on the chemical composition of Earth and icy giants.

    • Sergey S. Lobanov
    • , Pei-Nan Chen
    •  & Alexander F. Goncharov

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