Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Deforestation by the ancient Maya led to a destabilization of organic carbon preserved in the underlying soils and reduced the magnitude of the soil carbon sink in this region.
Biogenic aerosols produced by terrestrial vegetation substantially enhance global primary productivity of plants, according to integrated model analyses.
The onset of seafloor spreading in the northern South China Sea was marked by the rapid onset of magmatism and mantle upwelling, suggests an analysis of International Ocean Discovery Program core material.
Accelerated storage of terrestrial carbon during the slow warming period (1998–2012) can be predominantly attributed to lower land-use emissions due to decreased tropical forest loss and increased afforestation in the northern temperate regions.
Earth’s oldest known felsic rocks formed by partial melting at low pressures and high temperatures caused by impact melting of mafic Hadean crust, according to phase equilibria and trace element modelling.
A Cenozoic reconstruction of the δ34S of marine sulfate suggests a shift in the locus of pyrite burial from shallow seas to the open ocean during the early Eocene.
Episodic melting of some Antarctic ice shelves is linked to ocean temperature cycles, according to new observations collected over 17 years near the Dotson Ice Shelf.
Enhanced overturning in the Pacific Ocean flushed carbon from the abyssal ocean to the atmosphere during the last deglaciation, according to authigenic neodymium isotope data.
Experiments suggest that magnetite precipitation on early Mars was accompanied by the release of H2 that may have helped to warm the planet and stabilize liquid water at the Martian surface.
The redox state of volcanic gases and melts can become decoupled during magma ascent, according to observations of gas emissions from Kīlauea’s lava lake, Hawaii. Cooling of fast-rising bubbles changes the abundance of redox-sensitive gas species.
Radiation patterns for deep earthquakes could be a result of shear faulting mechanisms—similar to those for shallow earthquakes—but in highly anisotropic rock fabric, suggest seismic analyses.
The amount of nitrate in the surface of the Southern Ocean has increased during the Holocene, weakening the biological pump and potentially contributing to the rise in atmospheric CO2 concentrations.
The strength of the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds varied throughout the Holocene, according to a reconstruction from lake sediments, with periods of stronger winds coincident with higher atmospheric CO2 levels.
Non-vascular vegetation, such as mosses and lichens, can intercept and evaporate substantial amounts of precipitation at a global scale, suggest numerical simulations and comparisons to field observations.
Microbial life colonized the land surface by 3.2 billion years ago, forming complex communities distinct from those in nearby marine environments, according to analyses of fossilized microbial mats in the Moodies Group, South Africa.
The isotopic composition of sulfur minerals formed during the Archaean can be reconstructed from dissolved sulfur in rivers draining cratons. Analyses from Canada suggest that the Archaean sulfur cycle was in isotopic mass balance.
Fast-colonizing plants stabilize wetland landscapes, whereas slow-colonizing plants promote channel formation according to biogeomorphic model simulations and field observations.
Northern and Southern hemisphere temperatures were decoupled during the Eocene/Oligocene transition, suggests a sea surface temperature record from the North Atlantic.