Nature GeosciencePub Date : 2025-05-13DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01706-3
Alison Hunt
{"title":"Volcanic forcing of early oxygen","authors":"Alison Hunt","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01706-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01706-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The Archean Eon, spanning from approximately 4.0 to 2.5 billion years ago, was a time of atmospheric change on Earth. Prior to the Great Oxidation Event, the atmosphere generally had negligible molecular oxygen. Photoautotrophs, for example, cyanobacteria, likely evolved during this time and produced oxygen in small amounts through oxygenic photosynthesis, though this was then destroyed by reactions under a reducing atmosphere. The change in geochemical conditions that allowed this oxygen to persist and build up was a key event in the emergence and evolution of early life, especially complex animals.</p><p>However, a growing body of evidence indicates that the Earth experienced earlier transient oxygenation events — so-called whiffs of oxygen. A 2007 study (<i>Science</i> <b>317</b>, 1903–1906; 2007) suggested that small amounts of oxygen may have been present in the atmosphere at least 50 million years before the start of the Great Oxidation Event, and persisted for several million years. Other episodes and locations of transient oxygenation have been identified since (see the Article by Chen et al. and the Article by Liang et al. in this issue).</p>","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"142 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":18.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143945687","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature GeosciencePub Date : 2025-05-13DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01682-8
Nan Liu
{"title":"Galactic messages carried by moissanite","authors":"Nan Liu","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01682-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01682-8","url":null,"abstract":"Presolar moissanite grains are stellar fossils that act as messengers from the cosmos. Nan Liu explores the ways moissanite enables cosmochemists to investigate the origin and evolution of our Solar System and beyond.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"71 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":18.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143945688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature GeosciencePub Date : 2025-05-13DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01708-1
{"title":"First breaths of a hospitable Earth","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01708-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01708-1","url":null,"abstract":"The oxygenation of the atmosphere was a pivotal point in Earth’s evolution. Punctuated environmental perturbations in its run-up laid the foundations for this event.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":18.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143945690","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature GeosciencePub Date : 2025-05-12DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01696-2
O. M. Butler, S. Manzoni, G. Liang, S. Matsumura, C. R. Warren
{"title":"Microbial physiology conserves phosphorus across long-term ecosystem development","authors":"O. M. Butler, S. Manzoni, G. Liang, S. Matsumura, C. R. Warren","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01696-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01696-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Long-term terrestrial ecosystem development is characterized by declining soil phosphorus (P) and a corresponding increase in biological P limitation. The function of P-limited ecosystems relies on efficient use of P by soil microorganisms, but the physiological strategies used by microorganisms to manage P scarcity during ecosystem development are unknown. Here, by applying recent advances in soil metabolomic techniques to samples collected from a ~700,000-year chronosequence of ecosystem development in eastern Australia, we show that soil microbial physiological strategies for P efficiency include a high proportion of non-phosphorous membrane lipids along with substantial intracellular carbon storage. These strategies—which proliferate during primary succession and are maximized in retrogressive, P-depleted ecosystems—uphold microbial carbon limitation, triple modelled P-mineralization potential and can conserve close to double the P contained in the aboveground biomass of vegetation. These findings transform our understanding of terrestrial ecosystems by revealing a strong yet overlooked interplay between the ecophysiology of soil microorganisms and the long-term trajectory of ecosystem development.</p>","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":18.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143933574","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature GeosciencePub Date : 2025-05-12DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01687-3
Huw J. Horgan, Craig Stewart, Craig Stevens, Gavin Dunbar, Linda Balfoort, Britney E. Schmidt, Peter Washam, Mauro A. Werder, Darcy Mandeno, James Marschalek, Christina Hulbe, Nicholas Holschuh, Richard Levy, Benjamin Hurwitz, Stefan Jendersie, Katelyn Johnson, Justin Lawrence, Regine Morgenstern, Andrew D. Mullen, Enrica Quartini, Wilson Sauthoff, Matthew Siegfried, Holly Still, Sam Thorpe-Loversuch, Tina van de Flierdt, Ryan Venturelli, Arran Whiteford
{"title":"A West Antarctic grounding-zone environment shaped by episodic water flow","authors":"Huw J. Horgan, Craig Stewart, Craig Stevens, Gavin Dunbar, Linda Balfoort, Britney E. Schmidt, Peter Washam, Mauro A. Werder, Darcy Mandeno, James Marschalek, Christina Hulbe, Nicholas Holschuh, Richard Levy, Benjamin Hurwitz, Stefan Jendersie, Katelyn Johnson, Justin Lawrence, Regine Morgenstern, Andrew D. Mullen, Enrica Quartini, Wilson Sauthoff, Matthew Siegfried, Holly Still, Sam Thorpe-Loversuch, Tina van de Flierdt, Ryan Venturelli, Arran Whiteford","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01687-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01687-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Beneath Antarctica’s ice sheets, a little-observed network of liquid water connects vast landscapes and contributes to the motion of the overriding ice. When this subglacial water reaches the ocean cavity beneath ice shelves, it mixes with seawater, amplifying melt and in places forming deep channels in the base of the ice. Here we present observations from a hot-water-drilled borehole documenting subglacial water entering the ocean cavity at the grounding zone of Kamb Ice Stream and the Ross Ice Shelf. Our observations show that melt has removed approximately a third of the ice thickness, yet measurements reveal low rates of subglacial discharge in a turbid plume. Sediment cored from the channel floor shows larger discharge events occur and episodically deposit material from distinct geological domains. We quantify subglacial discharge and link our observations to the catchment upstream. We conclude that discrete discharge events are likely to dominate channel melt and sediment transport and result in the extensive ice-shelf features downstream of Kamb Ice Stream.</p>","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"119 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":18.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143933575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Increased plant productivity exacerbates subsoil carbon losses under warming via nitrogen mining","authors":"Mingming Wang, Shuai Zhang, Guocheng Wang, Liujun Xiao, Baojing Gu, Mianhai Zheng, Shuli Niu, Yuanhe Yang, Yiqi Luo, Ganlin Zhang, Zhou Shi, Zhongkui Luo","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01697-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01697-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Soils can be either a source or sink of atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> depending on how soil organic carbon (SOC) responds to climate warming and changes in plant productivity. Whereas warming typically accelerates SOC decomposition, the effect of plant productivity changes remains unclear. Here we use a space-for-change substitution approach to analyse a global dataset of SOC measurements down to 1 metre. We find that warming-induced SOC reduction in the 0–0.3-m topsoil is gradually offset by increasing plant productivity but exacerbated in the 0.3–1-m subsoil until plant productivity increase crosses a threshold of 30%. Consequently, entirely offsetting warming-induced SOC reduction in the top metre of soil requires an unrealistically high increase in plant productivity, albeit with substantial variance across ecosystems. Soil carbon-to-nitrogen ratio is the dominant predictor of the variance in SOC response, as this ratio determines whether nitrogen released during carbon loss meets the requirement for additional plant growth or whether additional nitrogen must be mined from soil organic matter. Such mining accelerates SOC losses, particularly in the subsoil, where the soil carbon-to-nitrogen ratio is lower than in topsoils. We conclude that globally, increased plant productivity may exacerbate SOC losses under climate warming, particularly in the subsoil.</p>","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":18.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143915599","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature GeosciencePub Date : 2025-05-07DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01692-6
{"title":"Huge submarine eruptions impact global climate but produce low atmospheric sulfur outputs","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01692-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01692-6","url":null,"abstract":"Calculation of the sulfur and water budgets released from magma during the 2022 eruption of Hunga volcano — the largest submarine eruption recorded — shows that of 18.8 Tg of sulfur dioxide released, <7% entered the atmosphere. The remaining sulfur dioxide dissolved in the ocean during explosive magma fragmentation at 400–1,000 m below sea level.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":18.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143920107","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature GeosciencePub Date : 2025-05-06DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01685-5
Patrick Blaser, Claire Waelbroeck, David J. R. Thornalley, Jörg Lippold, Frerk Pöppelmeier, Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr, Janne Repschläger, Samuel L. Jaccard
{"title":"Prevalent North Atlantic Deep Water during the Last Glacial Maximum and Heinrich Stadial 1","authors":"Patrick Blaser, Claire Waelbroeck, David J. R. Thornalley, Jörg Lippold, Frerk Pöppelmeier, Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr, Janne Repschläger, Samuel L. Jaccard","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01685-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01685-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Deep ocean circulation modulated glacial–interglacial climates through feedbacks to the carbon cycle and energy distribution. Past work has suggested that contraction of well-ventilated North Atlantic Deep Water during glacial times facilitated carbon storage in the deep ocean and drawdown of atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> levels. However, the spatial extent and properties of different water masses remain uncertain, in part due to conflicting palaeoceanographic proxy reconstructions. Here we combine five independent proxies to increase confidence and reconstruct Atlantic deep water distributions during the Last Glacial Maximum (around 21 thousand years ago) and the following Heinrich Stadial 1—a time when massive ice rafting in the North Atlantic interfered with deep water formation and caused global climate shifts. We find that North Atlantic Deep Water remained widespread in both periods, although its properties shifted from a cold, well-ventilated mode to a less-ventilated, possibly warmer, mode. This finding implies a remarkable persistence of deep water formation under these cold boundary conditions, sustained by compensation between the two formation modes. Our constraints provide an important benchmark for evaluating Earth system models, which can enhance confidence in future climate projections.</p>","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":18.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143909965","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature GeosciencePub Date : 2025-05-01DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01693-5
{"title":"Extreme Indian summer monsoons reduce marine productivity","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01693-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01693-5","url":null,"abstract":"The Indian summer monsoon plays a key part in influencing marine life in the Bay of Bengal. Palaeoceanographic records reveal that both extremely weak and strong monsoon phases led to declines in marine productivity. Future monsoon shifts pose a disruptive threat to the stability of regional ecosystems and fisheries.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":18.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143893465","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature GeosciencePub Date : 2025-05-01DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01695-3
Caroline R. Soderman, Owen M. Weller, Charles D. Beard, Nicolas Riel, Eleanor C. R. Green, Tim J. B. Holland
{"title":"A mid-crustal tipping point between silica-undersaturated and silica-oversaturated magmas","authors":"Caroline R. Soderman, Owen M. Weller, Charles D. Beard, Nicolas Riel, Eleanor C. R. Green, Tim J. B. Holland","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01695-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01695-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Alkaline–silicate igneous complexes contain a huge diversity of rock types, ranging from silica-undersaturated (feldspathoid-normative) to silica-oversaturated (quartz-normative) compositions. At present, the controls on the formation of such compositional diversity are poorly quantified. Here we apply thermodynamic models to investigate these controls using a case study of the Blatchford Lake Igneous Complex (Canada), which is compositionally representative of worldwide alkaline–silicate systems. By modelling fractionation of a primitive mafic melt across crustal pressures, we identify a narrow (~0.5 kbar) ‘tipping point’ across which residual melts become silica-rich or alkali-rich when shallower or deeper, respectively. This tipping point is consistently present at mid-crustal pressures (3–5 kbar; ~10–15 km depth) for a range of viable primitive melts, moving to higher pressures within this range for more hydrous and more oxidized melts. Crystallization at these pressures (within barometric estimates for the complex) can therefore generate and explain the vast diversity of observed alkali-rich and silica-rich compositions. A similar tipping point is also present in other modelled mafic igneous systems at mid-crustal conditions, indicating it is a widespread phenomenon. This result implies a key role for mid-crustal mafic staging chambers in generating compositional diversity in alkaline–silicate complexes worldwide.</p>","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":18.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143893467","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}