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Oxygen is generated abiotically at the abyssal seafloor in the presence of polymetallic nodules, potentially by seawater electrolysis, according to in situ chamber and ex situ incubation experiments.
The increasing use of manufactured sand in China since 2010 has greatly reduced the proportion of natural sand in the country’s total sand supply, from 80% in 1995 to 21% in 2020, according to a material flow analysis of sand in China.
Nitrogen deposition in China decreased by 14% between 2010 and 2020, with greater declines in nitrogen from industrial than agricultural sources, according to decadal observations of atmospheric deposition of different forms of reactive nitrogen.
Neoproterozoic banded iron formations formed in partially glaciated oceans where iron-rich and oxygenated water masses met, according to ocean modelling.
Information on past environmental conditions stored within high-altitude glaciers is being lost due to accelerated melting associated with climate change, according to ice core analysis from a Swiss glacier.
Noble gas concentrations in the deep North Pacific indicate that sea-level pressure in Antarctic Bottom Water formation regions has changed over the past 2,000 years.
Glacier retreat in Greenland not only changes the primary productivity of downstream fjord ecosystems but also the ecosystem structure and functioning, according to seasonal sampling of two downstream fjords.
Analysis of changes in the Earth’s rotation in the Precambrian suggests that day length stabilized at 19 h for 1 billion years due to tidal resonance, which may have been linked to a relatively quiescent period of tectonic activity and biological evolution.
Regional recovery from microplastic pollution-induced marine deoxygenation may take hundreds of years, according to a combination of biogeochemical and microplastic modelling.
Iodine chemistry plays a more important role than bromine chemistry in tropospheric ozone losses in the Arctic, according to ship-based observations of halogen oxides from March to October 2020.
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is currently distinctly weaker than it has been for the last millennium, according to a synthesis of proxy records derived from a range of techniques.