Research articles

Since the 1980s, subsurface temperature seasonality in extratropical oceans has decreased by 5.7 ± 1.8% below the mixed layer due to increased heat uptake from greenhouse gases, strengthening upper ocean stratification, and limiting heat penetration into deeper layers, according to analysis of a hierarchy of climate models and an idealized diffusive model.

China’s carbon dioxide emissions from industrial processes and product use were 1628 million metric tons in 2020, and the main driver of the emission growth over the past two decades is per capita construction area, according to an analysis that uses industrial production and process data.

Over 62% of rocket launch sites are located within or near to protected areas worldwide, which could threaten conservation goals, according to mapping of global rocket launch sites along with biome and threatened terrestrial species datasets.

Environmental DNA studies focus more on microbes, invertebrates, and temperate ecosystems, compared to biodiversity-focused forest carbon projects, and both areas need to align to facilitate improved biodiversity monitoring in the forest carbon market, according to the three-phase systematic analysis.

Climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of temperature extremes, especially in the Mediterranean, where the concurrence of marine and atmospheric heatwaves amplifies marine heatwave intensity, while atmospheric heatwaves show no significant changes, according to a spatiotemporal approach to heatwave detection.

A strong link between stand structure and primary productivity is pervasively found in forests across the pantropical region, according to an analysis of GEDI lidar data and Sentinel remote sensing imagery.

Borehole fluids retrieved from the 2.4 km deep Kidd Creek Subsurface Observatory in Canada contain an indigenous microbial community dominated by Candidatus Frackibacter and represents an uncontaminated sample of the deep subsurface microbiome.

The Zanclean megaflood poured water from the western to the eastern Mediterranean basin through a shallow marine corridor in south-eastern Sicily, ending the isolation of the Mediterranean Sea from the global oceans about 5.3 million years ago, according to onshore-offshore geological data from southern Sicily and numerical modelling.

X-ray and hyperspectral analysis confirms that the lunar samples gifted by the USA to the Netherlands after the Apollo 11 landings are genuine and demonstrates the feasibility of non-destructive examination of precious or unique collection items

Glucose addition to peatland soils promotes decomposition of older buried carbon through enhanced microbial activity, according to DNA analysis and isotope labelling of peatland soil.

Unusually rapid uplift of Southeast Greenland is explained as a viscous response to recent deglaciation occurring above mantle weakened by the Iceland plume, according to 3D modelling with a hot plume track that crosses Greenland’s southeast coast.

The volume of research on transboundary rivers and management in the global south is disproportionately small compared to river basin population size, water withdrawals, and consumption, according to an analysis of 4713 case studies using machine learning and desk review.

In the Imperial Valley of California, irrigation of agricultural fields in summer decreases farmworker’s heat stress in the daytime but increases it at night, according to an analysis that uses high-resolution data from a regional climate model.

A detrital cassiterite found in the Kaapvaal Craton, South Africa, implies widespread tin mineralization and stabilization of granitic cratons approximately 3.08 billion years ago, as shown by U-Pb geochronology, trace element and oxygen and tin isotopes.

River-lake ecosystems act as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide sources in the wet season and sinks in the dry season, according to an analysis of greenhouse gas emissions from Dongting Lake, China, combined with a global-scale meta-analysis.

Substantial hydrofluorocarbon-23 emissions persist despite international reduction commitments: Emissions estimates based on inverse modelling of atmospheric measurements and transport exceeded reported values by more than five times in 2021.

Whale and delphinid numbers in the Gulf of Mexico have declined by up to 83% in the ten years following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, according to analysis of passive acoustic monitoring data.

Lower- and middle-income countries are disproportionately impacted by the reduction of winter cereals yields and fragmentation of the food trade due to the Russia-Ukraine war, according to an analysis that uses satellite cropland data, meteorological and trade data, and network approach.

Optimal regeneration success in Amazonian forests is mapped by simple ecological indicators, providing reference values for measuring restoration success across successional stages based on a large compiled dataset on forest regeneration.

Physics-Informed Neural Networks trained with natural dust values and paleoclimatic measurements can reconstruct the global dust deposition during the Holocene and Last Glacial Maximum, complementing traditional kriging reconstruction methods.