{"title":"Redefining the photic zone: beyond the autotroph-centric view of light in the ocean.","authors":"Thomas W Davies, Tim Smyth","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02374-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02374-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Traditional measures of the photic zone have remained focused on autotrophs, limiting understanding of how changing marine lightscapes impact heterotrophs that use light as a resource or an environmental cue. We propose a new photic zone definition that encompasses all biological processes influenced by celestial light, and a new measure of photic zone depth, the minimum light intensity that elicits biological responses. This approach allows photic zone measures to be inclusive of all marine photobiology driven by sunlight, moonlight, or starlight, and enables urgently needed exploration of the nature, extent and ecological implications of changing marine lightscapes.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"411"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12103301/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144149530","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The location of compression-induced subduction initiation controlled by structural versus thermal inheritance.","authors":"Éva Oravecz, Taras Gerya, Attila Balázs","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02627-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02627-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Subduction initiation is a pivotal process in the Wilson cycle, yet its mechanisms remain elusive. Using 3D coupled thermo-mechanical and surface processes models, we investigated how the duration of the plate motion reversal from rifting to plate convergence and the structural versus thermal inheritance influence the location of compression-induced subduction initiation. Our results reveal that abrupt plate motion changes lead to ridge inversion-driven subduction, controlled by the inherited thermal- and melt-induced weakening. In contrast, transitions exceeding a few million years localize strain along inherited continental lithospheric-scale weak zones, enhanced by rifting-induced grain size reduction. These findings, supported by lithospheric strength and strain analysis, align with observations from inferred subduction initiation sites, such as the Algerian margin and eastern Japan Sea, highlighting the interplay between structural and thermal inheritance in controlling compression-induced subduction initiation.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"652"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12339394/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144844807","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ying Xiong, Eric A Kort, A Anthony Bloom, Cynthia Gerlein-Safdi, Tianjiao Pu, Eren Bilir
{"title":"Limited evidence that tropical inundation and precipitation powered the 2020-2022 methane surge.","authors":"Ying Xiong, Eric A Kort, A Anthony Bloom, Cynthia Gerlein-Safdi, Tianjiao Pu, Eren Bilir","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02438-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02438-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Atmospheric methane is rapidly increasing, and the role of tropical wetlands in the global methane budget raises concerns about a potential climate-wetland-methane feedback. Here we use Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System observations to map monthly inundation dynamics across the tropics (37.4°S to 37.4°N) at high resolution (0.01° × 0.01°) over five years (2018-2023), including cloud and vegetation-covered regions. Our results reveal large seasonal and interannual variations in wetland extent not captured in traditional inundation products, with strong El Niño-Southern Oscillation correlations. Tropical wetland models driven by these inundation observations, independent precipitation products, or constrained by total water observations do not show growth in wetland methane emissions from 2020-2022. This suggests the 2020-2022 growth in methane is best explained by other methane source or sink mechanisms, or that non-hydrological controls are more important in tropical wetland methane emissions than currently understood.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"450"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12151849/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144282740","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Avni Malhotra, Jessica A M Moore, Samantha Weintraub-Leff, Katerina Georgiou, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Sharon A Billings, Marie-Anne de Graaff, Jennifer M Fraterrigo, A Stuart Grandy, Emily Kyker-Snowman, Mingzhen Lu, Courtney Meier, Derek Pierson, Shersingh Joseph Tumber-Dávila, Kate Lajtha, William R Wieder, Robert B Jackson
{"title":"Fine root and soil carbon stocks are positively related in grasslands but not in forests.","authors":"Avni Malhotra, Jessica A M Moore, Samantha Weintraub-Leff, Katerina Georgiou, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Sharon A Billings, Marie-Anne de Graaff, Jennifer M Fraterrigo, A Stuart Grandy, Emily Kyker-Snowman, Mingzhen Lu, Courtney Meier, Derek Pierson, Shersingh Joseph Tumber-Dávila, Kate Lajtha, William R Wieder, Robert B Jackson","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02486-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02486-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Increasing fine root carbon (FRC) inputs into soils has been proposed as a solution to increasing soil organic carbon (SOC). However, FRC inputs can also enhance SOC loss through priming. Here, we tested the broad-scale relationships between SOC and FRC at 43 sites across the US National Ecological Observatory Network. We found that SOC and FRC stocks were positively related with an across-ecosystem slope of 7 ± 3 kg SOC m<sup>-2</sup> per kg FRC m<sup>-2</sup>, but this relationship was driven by grasslands. Grasslands had double the across-ecosystem slope while forest FRC and SOC were unrelated. Furthermore, deep grassland soils primarily showed net SOC accrual relative to FRC input. Conversely, forests had high variability in whether FRC inputs were related to net SOC priming or accrual. We conclude that while FRC increases could lead to increased SOC in grasslands, especially at depth, the FRC-SOC relationship remains difficult to characterize in forests.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"497"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12213611/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144559435","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Johannes Brötzner, Herbert Biber, Paul Stefan Szabo, Noah Jäggi, Lea Fuchs, Andreas Nenning, Martina Fellinger, Gyula Nagy, Eduardo Pitthan, Daniel Primetzhofer, Andreas Mutzke, Richard Arthur Wilhelm, Peter Wurz, André Galli, Friedrich Aumayr
{"title":"Solar wind erosion of lunar regolith is suppressed by surface morphology and regolith properties.","authors":"Johannes Brötzner, Herbert Biber, Paul Stefan Szabo, Noah Jäggi, Lea Fuchs, Andreas Nenning, Martina Fellinger, Gyula Nagy, Eduardo Pitthan, Daniel Primetzhofer, Andreas Mutzke, Richard Arthur Wilhelm, Peter Wurz, André Galli, Friedrich Aumayr","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02546-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02546-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Important aspects concerning the origin and formation of the Moon's exosphere, its tenuous gas envelope, remain puzzling with uncertainties regarding the importance of different effects. Two competing processes - micrometeoroid impact vaporization and solar wind ion sputtering - are considered key contributors to the ejection of particles into the exosphere. Here we present direct, high-precision yield measurements of solar wind ion sputtering using real lunar samples (Apollo 16 sample 68501), combined with advanced 3D simulations of regolith erosion. We find solar wind sputter yields up to an order of magnitude lower than previously used in exosphere models. The difference is primarily due to the suppressive effects of surface morphology, in particular the roughness and high porosity of the lunar regolith. Our results provide critical, experimentally validated sputter yield estimates and address long-standing modeling uncertainties. These results are particularly timely in light of upcoming and ongoing missions, such as the Artemis program at the Moon or BepiColombo at Mercury, contributing essentially to our understanding of how the surfaces of rocky bodies in the solar system are altered.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"560"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12267057/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144674034","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Joris Šimaitis, Rick Lupton, Christopher Vagg, Isabela Butnar, Romain Sacchi, Stephen Allen
{"title":"Battery electric vehicles show the lowest carbon footprints among passenger cars across 1.5-3.0 °C energy decarbonisation pathways.","authors":"Joris Šimaitis, Rick Lupton, Christopher Vagg, Isabela Butnar, Romain Sacchi, Stephen Allen","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02447-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02447-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Passenger car carbon footprints are highly sensitive to future energy systems, a factor often overlooked in life cycle assessment. We use a time-dependent prospective life cycle assessment to enhance carbon footprints under four 1.5-3.0 °C decarbonisation pathways for electricity, fuel, and hydrogen from an energy-based integrated assessment model. Across 5000 comparative cases, battery electric vehicles consistently have the lowest carbon footprints compared to hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and fuel-cell vehicles. For example, battery electric vehicles show an average 32 to 47% lower footprint than hybrid combustion in 3.0 °C and 1.5 °C climate-compatible futures, respectively. This is driven by greater projected decarbonisation of electricity compared to fossil-dominated fuels and hydrogen. Battery electric vehicles meaningfully retain their advantage for mileages over 100,000 km, even in regions with carbon-intensive electricity since these are anticipated to decarbonise the most. Although our study supports battery electric vehicles as the most reliable climate-mitigation option for passenger cars, reducing their high manufacturing footprint remains important.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"476"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12176635/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144368702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hassan Saleh, Mohamed Sultan, Eugene Yan, Himanshu Save, Hesham Elhaddad, Hadi Karimi, Karem Abdelmohsen, Mustafa K Emil, Sara Al Qamshouai
{"title":"Intensifying tropical cyclones in the Arabian Sea replenish depleting aquifers.","authors":"Hassan Saleh, Mohamed Sultan, Eugene Yan, Himanshu Save, Hesham Elhaddad, Hadi Karimi, Karem Abdelmohsen, Mustafa K Emil, Sara Al Qamshouai","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02493-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02493-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Tropical cyclones intensified globally in recent decades, delivering extreme precipitation deeper inland. While much research has focused on the role of climate change in tropical cyclone intensification, less is known about their contribution to groundwater recharge, especially in arid regions where freshwater is scarce and aquifers are being depleted. Here we quantify cyclone-driven groundwater recharge across the Arabian Peninsula from 2002 to 2021 using satellite-based total water storage and hydrodynamic modeling. Findings show that cyclones contributed up to 60% of total precipitation in the southern Arabian Peninsula. Cyclone Mekunu (2018) alone delivered 30 km<sup>3</sup> of precipitation inland, resulting in a net groundwater recharge of 3.2 ± 1.2 km<sup>3</sup> in the Najd subbasin. These findings reveal that tropical cyclones play a crucial role in replenishing groundwater resources in arid regions. Our approach provides a framework for quantifying recharge in ungauged arid basins worldwide, offering valuable insights for climate-resilient water resource management.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"536"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12234357/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144599596","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Haitao Wang, Erik Lindemann, Patrick Liebmann, Milan Varsadiya, Mette Marianne Svenning, Muhammad Waqas, Sebastian Petters, Andreas Richter, Georg Guggenberger, Jiri Barta, Tim Urich
{"title":"Methane-cycling microbiomes in soils of the pan-Arctic and their response to permafrost degradation.","authors":"Haitao Wang, Erik Lindemann, Patrick Liebmann, Milan Varsadiya, Mette Marianne Svenning, Muhammad Waqas, Sebastian Petters, Andreas Richter, Georg Guggenberger, Jiri Barta, Tim Urich","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02765-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02765-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The methane-cycling microbiomes play crucial roles in methane dynamics. However, little is known about their distributions on a pan-Arctic scale as well as their responses to the widespread permafrost degradation. Based on 621 datasets of 16S rRNA gene amplicons from intact permafrost soils across the pan-Arctic, we identified only 22 methanogen and 26 methanotroph phylotypes. Their relative abundances varied significantly between sites and soil horizons. Only four methanogen phylotypes were detected at all locations. Remarkably, the permafrost soil methane filter was almost exclusively dominated by some obligate methanotroph (<i>Methylobacter</i>-like) phylotypes. However, a case study in Alaska suggests that atmospheric methane oxidizing bacteria (<i>Methylocapsa</i>-like phylotypes) dominated methanotrophs in a drier condition after permafrost degradation. These findings point towards a few key microbes particularly relevant for future studies on Arctic methane dynamics in a warming climate and that under future dry conditions, increased atmospheric methane uptake in Arctic upland soils may occur.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"748"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12440815/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145085230","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sarah S Gall, Tom Harwood, Michael Obersteiner, Jim W Hall
{"title":"Strategic land reallocation enhances carbon sequestration and biodiversity protection without compromising agricultural productivity in Great Britain.","authors":"Sarah S Gall, Tom Harwood, Michael Obersteiner, Jim W Hall","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02728-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02728-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Due to the negative environmental consequences of current land-use, and land's important role regarding carbon, biodiversity and food security, there is an urgent interest in reforming land-use. Policy objectives for tree planting to sequester carbon and the protection of land to increase biodiversity require land reallocation, which leads to inevitable trade-offs. Here, we evaluate the trade-offs between three objectives for rural land: agricultural/forestry production, carbon sequestration and biodiversity, by calculating metrics for these three objectives on a 500 m grid covering Great Britain. We use a multi-objective optimisation that allows us to explore the full option space of possible land conversions and identify the land allocations that entail limited trade-offs. Our results show that current land-use in Great Britain is far from optimal for any combination of objectives. We identify the locations where carbon sequestration and biodiversity can be substantially improved without compromising overall agricultural production, provided conversions are located carefully.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"770"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12479351/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145205832","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Christopher S R Neigh, Paul M Montesano, Joseph O Sexton, Margaret Wooten, William Wagner, Min Feng, Nuno Carvalhais, Leonardo Calle, Mark L Carroll
{"title":"Russian forests show strong potential for young forest growth.","authors":"Christopher S R Neigh, Paul M Montesano, Joseph O Sexton, Margaret Wooten, William Wagner, Min Feng, Nuno Carvalhais, Leonardo Calle, Mark L Carroll","doi":"10.1038/s43247-025-02006-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s43247-025-02006-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Climate warming has improved conditions for boreal forest growth, yet the region's fate as a carbon sink of aboveground biomass remains uncertain. Forest height is a powerful predictor of aboveground forest biomass, and access to spatially detailed height-age relationships could improve the understanding of carbon dynamics in this ecosystem. The capacity of land to grow trees, defined in forestry as site index, was estimated by analyzing recent measurements of canopy height against a chronosequence of forest stand age derived from the historical satellite record. Forest-height estimates were then subtracted from the predicted site index to estimate height-age growth potential across the region. Russia, which comprised 73% of the forest change domain, had strong departures from model expectation of 2.4-4.8 ± 3.8 m for the 75th and 90th percentiles. Combining satellite observations revealed a large young forest growth sink if allowed to recover from disturbance.</p>","PeriodicalId":10530,"journal":{"name":"Communications Earth & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"71"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11782080/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143078809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}