Featured
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Review Article |
The Amazon basin in transition
A synthesis of recent research shows that the effects of human actions have already altered the regional hydrology and energy balance of parts of the Amazon basin, and that interactions between deforestation, fire and climate change are likely to further alter carbon storage, precipitation patterns and river discharge.
- Eric A. Davidson
- , Alessandro C. de Araújo
- & Steven C. Wofsy
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Letter |
Biodiversity improves water quality through niche partitioning
More diverse stream communities have increased uptake of nutrients, including nitrate, a major pollutant, but the mechanism is little understood. This study manipulated algal species diversity in stream mesocosms with different flow habitats and disturbance regimes. Nitrogen uptake increased linearly with species richness, but when niche structure was experimentally removed the relationship disappeared.
- Bradley J. Cardinale
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Letter |
Recent decline in the global land evapotranspiration trend due to limited moisture supply
Climate change is expected to intensify the global hydrological cycle and to alter evapotranspiration, but direct observational constraints are lacking at the global scale. Now a data-driven, machine-learning technique and a suite of process-based models have been used to show that from 1982 to 1997 global evapotranspiration increased by about 7.1 millimetres per year per decade. But since 1998 this increase has ceased, probably because of moisture limitation in the Southern Hemisphere.
- Martin Jung
- , Markus Reichstein
- & Ke Zhang
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Letter |
Temperature-controlled organic carbon mineralization in lake sediments
The annual burial of organic carbon in lakes and reservoirs exceeds that of ocean sediments, but inland waters are components of the global carbon cycle that receive only limited attention. Here the authors find that the mineralization of organic carbon in lake sediments exhibits a strong positive relationship with temperature, suggesting that warmer water temperatures lead to more mineralization and less organic carbon burial.
- Cristian Gudasz
- , David Bastviken
- & Lars J. Tranvik
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News |
Typhoons carry carbon out to sea
Tropical cyclones have a previously unsuspected role in the carbon cycle.
- Jane Qiu
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Research Highlights |
Geoscience: Dam that water
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News |
River reveals chilling tracks of ancient flood
Water from melting ice sheet took unexpected route to the ocean.
- Quirin Schiermeier
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