Environmental chemistry articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Distinguishing between authigenic carbonate and primary marine carbonate is fundamental to our understanding of Earth’s carbon, oxygen and calcium cycles. Here, the authors show that a combination of uranium concentration and carbon isotope composition is able to distinguish between the two carbonate sinks.

    • Ming-Yu Zhao
    • , Yong-Fei Zheng
    •  & Yan-Yan Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The long-range atmospheric transport and deposition of reactive nitrogen may be affected by human activities. Here, the authors use isotope data to constrain sources of reactive nitrogen to high elevation lakes in the Uinta Mountains, finding that the majority originates from distant agricultural activities.

    • E. J. Hundey
    • , S. D. Russell
    •  & K. A. Moser

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanoparticles can act as absorbent materials for environmental clean-up due to their high surface-to-volume ratio, but subsequent removal can be difficult. Here, the authors report nanoparticles that aggregate upon UV radiation, allowing them to absorb pollutants from water and subsequently be removed in the aggregated state.

    • Ferdinand Brandl
    • , Nicolas Bertrand
    •  & Robert Langer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Extremophiles on Earth are known to respire methane, and the potential existence of methane on Mars indicates similar organisms could survive there. Here, the authors present data from Martian meteorites confirming the presence of methane, indicating that a habitat capable of supporting organisms exists on Mars.

    • Nigel J. F. Blamey
    • , John Parnell
    •  & Roberta L. Flemming

  • Article |

    Particulate matter pollution is a public health concern in industrialized and urban areas. Here, the authors control the surface chemistry and microstructure of filtration materials to fabricate effective and transparent air filters for the capture of PM2.5pollutants.

    • Chong Liu
    • , Po-Chun Hsu
    •  & Yi Cui

  • Article |

    Selenium deficiency is a major health problem, particularly in the selenium-poor belt in China, yet its distribution in the terrestrial environment is poorly understood. Here, the authors combine geochemical and palaeoclimate data and show that selenium distribution in China may be related to East Asian monsoon rainfall.

    • Tim Blazina
    • , Youbin Sun
    •  & Lenny H.E. Winkel

  • Article |

    Some minerals, such as gypsum, hold water in their crystalline structure. Palacio et al. show that shallow-rooted plants growing on gypsum are able to make use of this crystallization water, suggesting an alternative water source for plants under conditions of severe drought.

    • Sara Palacio
    • , José Azorín
    •  & Juan Pedro Ferrio

  • Article |

    Roaming dynamics have been shown to be important in unimolecular decompositions, but the relevance to bimolecular reactions has been less clear. Here, the authors study radical addition/elimination reactions and implicate a roaming transition state in a bimolecular reaction.

    • Baptiste Joalland
    • , Yuanyuan Shi
    •  & Alexander M. Mebel

  • 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 |

    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 |

    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 |

    Membrane-based technologies to separate oil–water mixtures are energy-intensive, suffer from fouling or cannot separate a wide range of mixtures. Now, a new membrane is reported that is superhydrophilic and superoleophobic, and can separate a range of oil–water mixtures with high efficiency, without an external energy source.

    • Arun K. Kota
    • , Gibum Kwon
    •  & Anish Tuteja

  • Article |

    The night sky viewed from Earth is very bright at infrared wavelengths due to atmospheric emission, making land-based astronomy difficult in this spectral region. Here, a photonic filter is demonstrated to suppress this unwanted light, opening new paths to infrared astronomy with current and future telescopes.

    • J. Bland-Hawthorn
    • , S.C. Ellis
    •  & C. Trinh

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