Articles in 2022

Cellular modelling and geochemical analyses reveal that a dominant group of phytoplankton changed their carbonate production as atmospheric CO₂ levels declined from peak levels in the warm early Eocene, hinting at a positive feedback in the global carbon cycle.

Controversy pervaded the June 2022 UN Ocean Conference, with partisan alliances forming around burgeoning environmental and social issues. Yet, out of the talks, emerged strong aspirations across UN states and other stakeholders to restore and protect the ocean.

Covering nearly 2,000 years of history, Ele Willoughby traces the glass etching ability of hydrofluoric acid back to its fluorspar origins and explores the modern optics of fluorite.

Permeating every aspect of life – and each with a multitude of stories to tell – we celebrate the utility, beauty and wonder of minerals in a new column: all minerals considered.

Enhancing natural subsurface hydrogen production through water injection could make a substantial contribution to achieving the low-carbon energy transition that is required to limit global warming.

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.

Seismometers on the NASA InSight lander have identified unusual signals from meteoroid impacts on Mars. Impact locations were confirmed by satellite images of new craters at these sites and directly constrain the martian interior, confirming its crustal structure and ground-truthing the scaling of impact-induced seismicity.

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.

Hydrous conditions extend across the 660 km discontinuity between Earth’s mantle transition zone and lower mantle, according to analysis of a polyphase mineral inclusion in a gem diamond from the Karowe mine, Botswana

Impact-induced acoustic and seismic wave events on Mars recorded by the InSight lander’s seismometer have been traced to fresh craters observed in spacecraft imagery.

Tree species diversity promotes drought resistance in nearly half of global forests, according to a global analysis of the relationship between species richness and drought-induced changes in forest productivity.

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.

Retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet during the late Oligocene was caused primarily by a tectonically driven marine transgression, according to a compilation of Ross Sea surface temperature estimates throughout the Cenozoic.

Modern decadal scale sea surface temperature variability in the eastern Mediterranean is within the range reported from a Last Interglacial alkenone proxy temperature record. However, future warming could outpace Last Interglacial variability.

Bedrock composition can play a critical role in determining the structure and water demand of forests, influencing their vulnerability to drought. The properties of bedrock can help explain within-region patterns of tree mortality in the 2011–2017 California drought.