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Plant roots in thawing permafrost soils act to enhance microbial decomposition and the loss of soil organic carbon, according to an analysis of observational data and a rhizosphere priming model.
Patterns of erosion and deposition by some slope streaks on Mars are consistent with a dry dust avalanche origin, according to an analysis of orbital images before and after new streaks formed.
Interactions between magma and water can drive explosive fragmentation eruptions of the type seen in the Havre volcanic eruption, New Zealand, in 2012, even under submarine conditions, according to laboratory fragmentation experiments.
Major sediment-hosted base metal deposits are located within 200 km of the border between thick and thin lithosphere, according to statistical comparisons between global lithospheric thickness and known deposit locations.
Earth’s deep-mantle domains are geochemically distinct. The African domain is enriched in subducted material, which suggests a different history from the Pacific domain and a dynamic relationship between plate tectonics and deep-mantle structures.
High conductance in the lowermost mantle beneath the Pacific deflects the planetary gyre, which results in limited variation in the magnetic field in the region, according to numerical modelling of Earth’s core dynamics.
Soils may accumulate less carbon and with a slower turnover than Earth system models predict, according to analysis of the age distribution of global soil carbon, which finds that the mean age of soil carbon is older than that in simulated in models.
Regional changes in dry-season water availability over recent decades can be attributed to human-induced climate change, according to analyses of global reconstructions.
Pluto’s subsurface ocean may have formed early due to accretionary heating, a comparison of thermal evolution modelling with observed tectonic structures suggests.
Increased Southern Ocean productivity driven by sea-ice feedbacks contributed to a slowdown in rising CO2 levels during the last deglaciation, according to analyses of marine-derived aerosols from an Antarctic ice core.
Tropical deforestation rates are linked to large-scale land investments, according to georeferenced land deal records and remote sensing of forest loss over the past two decades.
Subsidence and carbon emissions in tropical peatlands are primarily linked to drainage history, not land-use type, according to large-scale high-resolution remote sensing in Southeast Asia.
Aerosol particles produced by biomass burning are ubiquitous in the remote troposphere, according to global airborne measurements over remote ocean regions.
Calcium carbonate formed in seagrass beds that is transported and dissolved in deeper waters offshore helps buffer coastal acidification in the Chesapeake Bay, according to geochemical modelling of a transect of carbonate chemistry measurements.
An artificial intelligence-based method may infill gaps in historical temperature data more effectively than conventional techniques. Application of this method reveals a stronger global warming trend between 1850 and 2018 than estimated previously.
Long-term Himalayan erosion rates remained stable through the global climatic changes of the past six million years, according to the cosmogenic nuclide composition of terrestrial sediments recovered from the Bay of Bengal.
Secondary air pollution events are enhanced in the Yangtze River delta, China, due to the interaction of long-range transport and aerosol–boundary layer feedback, according to a combination of observations and simulations of haze events from 2013 to 2018.