Marine chemistry articles within Nature

Featured

  • Letter |

    Phosphorus is a biolimiting nutrient that is important in regulating the redox state of the ocean–atmosphere system. Here, the ratio of phosphorus to iron in iron-oxide-rich sedimentary rocks through time has been used to evaluate the evolution of the marine phosphate reservoir. Phosphate concentrations have been relatively constant over the past 542 million years of Earth's history, but were high in the aftermath of the 'snowball Earth' glaciations some 750 to 635 million years ago, with implications for the rise of metazoan life.

    • Noah J. Planavsky
    • , Olivier J. Rouxel
    •  & Timothy W. Lyons

  • Article |

    The major nutrients nitrate and phosphate have one of the strongest correlations in the sea, with a slope similar to the average nitrogen to phosphorus content of plankton biomass (16:1). Why this global relationship exists, despite the wide range of nitrogen to phosphorus ratios at the organism level, is unknown. Here, an ocean circulation model and observed nutrient distributions have been used to show that the covariation of dissolved nitrate and phosphate is maintained by ocean circulation.

    • Thomas S. Weber
    •  & Curtis Deutsch

  • News |

    Independent researchers claim oxygen depletion in the Gulf of Mexico is real, but a US government report advises caution.

    • Amanda Mascarelli

  • Opinion |

    Plumes of dissolved gas could be used to determine how much oil has leaked into the Gulf of Mexico, says David Valentine — if the studies are done soon.

    • David Valentine

  • Letter |

    It has been thought that ocean temperatures during the early Palaeoarchaean era (around 3.5 billion years ago) were 55–85 °C. But a recent study indicated that the temperatures might be no higher than 40 °C. Here, studies are reported of the oxygen isotope compositions of phosphates in sediments from the 3.2–3.5-billion-year-old Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa. The findings indicate a well-developed phosphorus cycle and evolved biological activity in an Archaean ocean with temperatures of 26–35 °C.

    • Ruth E. Blake
    • , Sae Jung Chang
    •  & Aivo Lepland

  • News & Views |

    Redox reactions in widely spatially separated layers of marine sediments are coupled to each other. This suggests that bacteria mediate the flow of electrons between the layers — an idea that would previously have been dismissed.

    • Kenneth H. Nealson

  • News |

    Nanowires growing from bacteria might link up distant chemical reactions in sediments.

    • Katharine Sanderson

  • News |

    Collaboration launches effort to track marine nutrients.

    • Mark Schrope

  • News |

    Much more carbon is sequestered by echinoderms than previously thought.

    • Matt Kaplan

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