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Annual variations of phytoplankton biomass can be explained by processes acting on small spatio-temporal scales, according to a global analysis of satellite observations of sea surface chlorophyll and temperature from 1999 to 2018.
Supershear earthquakes occur more frequently than previously thought, as suggested by the identification of four oceanic events from a global analysis of large shallow strike-slip earthquakes.
The rise of secondary-endosymbiont-bearing algal groups—better adapted to low nutrient conditions than the green algae they supplanted—was tied to a fall in marine trace metal concentrations during the Mesozoic, according to a comparative genomic analysis.
Temperature variability over land is enhanced by ocean temperature fluctuations on millennial timescales, with implications for regional-scale climate change, according to an analysis of Northern Hemisphere proxy records and observations.
Vegetation change over the past two decades has limited the decline in global water availability by enhancing rainfall over evapotranspiration, according to analysis of observation-based atmospheric moisture transport data.
Numerical simulations of the exhumation of basin-filling river deposits suggest that ridge networks observed in Martian landscapes may represent erosional windows into sedimentary basins on Mars.
A 400-km-long subglacial dendritic river system in Antarctica transports freshwater at high pressures, potentially enhancing ice flow and ice-shelf melt, according to numerical modelling and geophysical data.
Deep-water formation in the Nordic Seas that helps to drive the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation was vigorous during the last glacial maximum, much as it is today, and declined during deglaciation, according to neodymium isotope records.
Organic carbon burial rates in an Upper Cretaceous river delta are similar to those in modern deltas, suggesting that high burial rates can persist over geological timescales in these common settings, according to stratigraphic and geochemical analysis of exhumed delta sediments.
Enhanced dust emissions are associated with more than half of the global large wildfire events occurring between 2003 and 2020, according to analyses of satellite measurements of aerosol abundance following more than 150,000 global wildfires.
Methane hydrates decomposing beneath mid-latitude ocean basins are unlikely to be a source of atmospheric methane, according to direct measurements of dissolved methane in the water column from seep fields along the US Atlantic and Pacific margins.
Biological uptake in the surface and release in the deep ocean contribute to oceanic nickel distribution, including the residual surface Ni pool, according to culture experiments, field data and global biogeochemical circulation modelling
Carbon loss from coastal wetlands in eastern North America due to sea-level rise is being offset by warming-driven greening of adjacent upland forests, with a net increase in carbon stored in coastal vegetation, according to an analysis of remote sensing data.
Ensemble forecasts from a dynamical model suggest that fluctuations in atmospheric angular momentum and the length of day can be predicted over a year in advance, thereby providing a source of long-range climate predictability.
The first pulse of the Permian–Triassic mass extinction was driven by intense weathering, suppressing CO2, while food web collapse and prolonged warming drove the second pulse, according to a high-resolution record from the Shangsi section, China
Warm greenhouse conditions spanning the end-Permian mass extinction event are linked to increased rates of reverse weathering, according to lithium and strontium isotope records as well as geochemical modelling.
Atmospheric variability can amplify ocean-driven submarine melting of marine-terminating glaciers in Greenland, according to an analysis of observations and models from 1979 to 2018.
A combination of theory, reanalysis and model simulations suggests that tropospheric temperature and cloud cover are strongly influenced by vapour buoyancy, an effect currently neglected in some leading global climate models.
Bathymetric surveys of the submarine Congo Canyon show damming by canyon-flank landslides led to the temporary storage of substantial masses of sediment and organic carbon, interrupting their transport to the deep sea.
Over the past 620,000 years, three distinct phases of climate variability in eastern Africa coincided with shifts in hominin evolution and dispersal, according to an analysis of environmental proxy records from a core collected in the Chew Bahir basin of Ethiopia.