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Widespread, temporary wetlands in the American Midwest were likely a major cause of methane emission peaks during the last deglaciation, according to an analysis of regional pollen records combined with hydrological modelling.
Atmospheric Walker circulation results in a two-way interaction between decadal-scale sea surface temperature variability in the Atlantic and Pacific, according to pacemaker climate modelling experiments.
Thawing permafrost mobilizes concerning amounts of carbon into the wider environment. Piecing together carbon sources and sinks in this complex system is important to understanding its overall climate impact.
Carbon dioxide emissions from permafrost thaw are substantially enhanced by relieving microbial functional limitations, according to incubation experiments on Yedoma permafrost.
Ocean temperature and atmospheric oxygen concentration are key factors in the long-term efficiency of the marine biological carbon pump, according to a mechanistic model of carbon transfer from surface waters to the deep ocean interior.
Uncertainties and subjective choices affecting remaining carbon budgets should be fully considered when applying them to international and national climate policies.
The coupling of anaerobic oxidation of methane and arsenate reduction is an important pathway of releasing arsenic from soils, according to incubation experiments of arsenate-contaminated wetland soils.
Increases in atmospheric CO2 can be dampened but also accelerated by the net impact on terrestrial carbon cycling of combined changes in temperature, rainfall, CO2 and nitrogen, according to an eight-year grassland experiment in the United States.
Geological and botanical archives can preserve evidence of exceptional floods going back centuries to millennia. Updated risk guidelines offer a new opportunity to apply lessons from paleoflood hydrology to judge the odds of future floods.
Atmospheric circulation shifts during the Little Ice Age led to greater typhoon generation in the tropical North Pacific according to a comparison of sediment proxy records of past storm activity and outputs of general circulation models.
Interacting atmospheric circulation patterns are responsible for a recent reversal of a decades-long decline in deepwater formation on the Antarctic shelf, according to an analysis of in situ and remote sensing data from the Ross Sea.
Two seismic discontinuities in the mantle transition zone beneath the western Pacific represent subducted slab interfaces that could be the slab Moho and partially molten sub-slab asthenosphere, according to an analysis of seismic data.
Long fault ruptures that have both strike-slip and dip-slip components can propagate at a wide range of speeds, including those theoretically predicted to be unstable, according to numerical simulations.
Low climate sensitivity has been ruled out, but the door remains open for alarmingly high estimates. Improved understanding of cloud feedbacks is vital for better constraining the upper limit of future warming.
Simulations suggest a shift to a high sensitivity of Earth’s climate to increasing CO2 can be attributed to the decline in the ice content in clouds as the climate warms.