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The Indian summer monsoon plays a key part in influencing marine life in the Bay of Bengal. Palaeoceanographic records reveal that both extremely weak and strong monsoon phases led to declines in marine productivity. Future monsoon shifts pose a disruptive threat to the stability of regional ecosystems and fisheries.
Atmospheric oxygen, supplied from the oceans, dramatically rose during the Great Oxidation Event. Our examination of the preceding evolution of seawater oxygenation revealed that the redox state in seawater oscillated between oxic and anoxic conditions before oceanic oxygenation again increased towards the dawn of the Great Oxidation Event.
A narrow range of pressures at mid-crustal depth represents a tipping point between silica-undersaturated and silica-oversaturated compositions crystallizing from mafic melts in alkaline–silicate igneous systems, according to a thermodynamic modelling study.
Little sulfur from the 2022 Hunga submarine eruption reached the atmosphere due to seawater–magma interactions, indicating that the climate impact of this type of eruption may be underestimated, according to analysis of ash collected throughout the event.
Warming-induced changes in extreme precipitation intensity that exceed the Clausius–Clapeyron scaling rate can be explained by a statistical shift from stratiform to convective precipitation, according to an analysis of lightning records across Europe.
Changes in terrestrial runoff into the Bay of Bengal during both extremely weak and strong Indian summer monsoon phases since the Last Glacial Maximum caused a collapse in marine primary production linked to increased stratification, according to proxy records from a marine sediment core.
Dissolved inorganic carbon can be a limiting factor for organic nitrogen production in rivers, and so bedrock composition may influence river chemistry, according to geochemical analysis of rivers in Asia and statistical analysis of global datasets.
The morphological complexity that develops on suspended sediment surfaces due to microbial colonization substantially increases drag, according to high-resolution microscopic imaging and fluid dynamics simulations.
Deep marine shelf environments experienced fluctuating levels of seawater oxygenation before the Great Oxidation Event, as reflected by oscillations between nitrogen fixation and denitrification recorded by nitrogen isotopes in banded iron formations.
Ancient metamorphosed basalts show a sulfur isotopic fingerprint of surface sediment, suggesting volatile cycling by a subduction-like process was occurring more than 3.8 billion years ago.
Combined sulfur and neodymium isotopes suggest that volatile cycling at subduction zones began 3.8 Gyr ago or earlier, according to a study of Eoarchaean mantle-derived rocks with arc-lava characteristics.
The rise of oxygen in the early Earth’s atmosphere remains enigmatic in its timing and extent. Insights from thallium isotopes in Archean shales suggest that it may have experienced flips in oxygenation on a global scale prior to 2.5 billion years ago.
Oxygenated bottom water existed transiently on continental shelves with O2 penetrating into underlying marine sediments by about 2.65 billion years ago, according to a study of thallium isotopes in Archaean shales.
Periods with enhanced iron and sulfide availability that promoted recycling of bioavailable phosphorus from sediments contributed to episodic development of oxygen oases in the Archaean ocean, according to analysis of trace metals, phosphorus and iron from 2.9-billion-year-old sediments.
Davemaoite is the least abundant of the lower mantle rock-forming minerals. Despite this, it is a maverick that exerts a big influence on geochemical cycling, as Oliver Tschauner explains.
Numerical simulations suggest the wavelength of wind ripples is controlled by the mechanics of grain–bed impacts, not grain hop length, explaining why ripples on Mars and Earth are the same scale despite very different atmospheric conditions.
Measurements from a robotic underwater vehicle reveal the impacts of meltwater from the giant iceberg A-68A on the properties of the surrounding Southern Ocean. In addition to increasing surface stratification and mid-depth vertical mixing, the meltwater impacts primary productivity, with direct and indirect effects on ecosystems and carbon cycling.
Continued ground uplift long after the drying out of the Aral Sea demonstrates that human activity can provoke a response deep inside our planet, in this case by causing rock in Earth’s mantle to flow.
Aquatic vegetation has an important role in lake methane emissions. Between 1984 and 2021 the maximum area of aquatic vegetation in northern lakes (>40° N) expanded by 2.3 × 104 km2. This expansion could substantially increase long-term total methane emissions from lakes.
Analysis of global datasets indicates that dry to wet transitions in soil wetness over regions spanning around 500 km can increase the size and rainfall intensity of organized thunderstorms around the world. Therefore, observations of soil moisture could improve storm forecasts and support adaptation to changing hazards under climate change.
