Pub Date : 2025-12-16DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01882-2
Adam John Jeffery, Steven Leslie Rogers, Kelly Louise Ann Jeffery, Mark Lucherini, Jamie Keith Pringle, Martin Griffin
{"title":"Autistic voices are an overlooked minority in geosciences","authors":"Adam John Jeffery, Steven Leslie Rogers, Kelly Louise Ann Jeffery, Mark Lucherini, Jamie Keith Pringle, Martin Griffin","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01882-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01882-2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"366 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":18.3,"publicationDate":"2025-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145771125","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}
Pub Date : 2025-12-15DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01866-2
Wenyu Zhou, L. Ruby Leung, Chuan-Chieh Chang, Ming Zhao, Huang-Hsiung Hsu, Hsin-Chien Liang, Chia-Ying Tu, Karthik Balaguru, Jian Lu
Since 1980, tropical cyclones have migrated poleward, but it remains unclear whether this trend reflects long-term climate change or temporary climate variability. Here we investigate the drivers of this poleward migration using multiple observational datasets and global models that permit tropical cyclones. We show that a tripolar pattern of Pacific sea surface temperature variability strongly modulates the interannual variation of cyclone latitudes and largely drove the poleward migration over 1980–2024. The tripolar pattern influences tropical cyclones more effectively than either the El Niño/Southern Oscillation or the Hadley circulation. When its effects are removed, poleward migration is negligible. When it shows negative trends, the model simulates equatorward migration. As the pattern exhibits alternating multi-decadal trends but no long-term trend since 1970, its recent trend—and the associated poleward migration—is unlikely to persist. In ensemble projections under a warming scenario, tropical cyclone activity decreases overall, leading to fewer occurrences at high latitudes despite the poleward expansion of the Hadley cell. These results indicate that climate variability has played a dominant role in the observed poleward migration of tropical cyclones, and that future changes may differ markedly from the recent multi-decadal trends.
{"title":"Poleward migration of tropical cyclones over 1980–2024 is dominated by Pacific variability","authors":"Wenyu Zhou, L. Ruby Leung, Chuan-Chieh Chang, Ming Zhao, Huang-Hsiung Hsu, Hsin-Chien Liang, Chia-Ying Tu, Karthik Balaguru, Jian Lu","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01866-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01866-2","url":null,"abstract":"Since 1980, tropical cyclones have migrated poleward, but it remains unclear whether this trend reflects long-term climate change or temporary climate variability. Here we investigate the drivers of this poleward migration using multiple observational datasets and global models that permit tropical cyclones. We show that a tripolar pattern of Pacific sea surface temperature variability strongly modulates the interannual variation of cyclone latitudes and largely drove the poleward migration over 1980–2024. The tripolar pattern influences tropical cyclones more effectively than either the El Niño/Southern Oscillation or the Hadley circulation. When its effects are removed, poleward migration is negligible. When it shows negative trends, the model simulates equatorward migration. As the pattern exhibits alternating multi-decadal trends but no long-term trend since 1970, its recent trend—and the associated poleward migration—is unlikely to persist. In ensemble projections under a warming scenario, tropical cyclone activity decreases overall, leading to fewer occurrences at high latitudes despite the poleward expansion of the Hadley cell. These results indicate that climate variability has played a dominant role in the observed poleward migration of tropical cyclones, and that future changes may differ markedly from the recent multi-decadal trends.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"158 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":18.3,"publicationDate":"2025-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145759490","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}
Pub Date : 2025-12-12DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01855-5
Cornelia Mertens, Sarah Paradis, Jordon D. Hemingway
Pyrite (iron sulfide) formation and burial in sediments decreases atmospheric CO2 and increases O2 levels. However, the environmental and sedimentological conditions that regulate pyrite burial remain poorly constrained. Here we investigate such controlling mechanisms using a non-dimensional diagenetic model that extracts the natural variables governing pyrite formation rate and sulfur isotopic composition (δ34S). Both properties are controlled by the local ratios of organic carbon content to sulfate concentration and organic carbon reactivity to sedimentation rate; formation rate is additionally sensitive to reactive iron delivery. Using only globally interpolated boundary conditions, our model accurately predicts signals in 216 sediment cores distributed across the modern ocean. Extrapolating this, we estimate a global pyrite burial flux of 7.0 × 1012 mol S yr−1 (sensitivity test range: 2.5 × 1012 to 19.0 × 1012 mol S yr−1) with a weighted-average δ34S value of −4‰ (range: −8 to +3‰). This flux is substantially larger than terrestrial pyrite oxidation, indicating that the sulfur cycle is currently not in steady state but is instead described by net pyrite burial and thus atmospheric O2 accumulation. Finally, we interpret the geologic pyrite δ34S record within this model framework and identify flooded shelf area as the main control on pyrite burial throughout the Phanerozoic Eon.
沉积物中黄铁矿(硫化铁)的形成和埋藏减少了大气中的二氧化碳,增加了氧气水平。然而,控制黄铁矿埋藏的环境和沉积条件仍然知之甚少。本文采用无量纲成岩模型,提取控制黄铁矿形成速率和硫同位素组成(δ34S)的自然变量,研究这种控制机制。这两种性质均受局部有机碳含量与硫酸盐浓度之比和有机碳反应性与沉降速率之比的控制;形成速率对活性铁的输送也很敏感。仅使用全球插值的边界条件,我们的模型准确地预测了分布在现代海洋中的216个沉积物岩心的信号。据此推断,我们估计全球黄铁矿埋藏通量为7.0 × 1012 mol S yr - 1(灵敏度测试范围:2.5 × 1012 ~ 19.0 × 1012 mol S yr - 1),加权平均δ34S值为−4‰(范围:−8 ~ +3‰)。这一通量大大大于陆地黄铁矿氧化,表明硫循环目前不是处于稳定状态,而是由净黄铁矿埋藏和大气O2积累来描述。最后,在此模式框架内对黄铁矿δ34S的地质记录进行了解释,确定了显生宙黄铁矿埋藏的主要控制因素为水淹陆架。
{"title":"Sedimentary conditions drive modern pyrite burial flux to exceed oxidation","authors":"Cornelia Mertens, Sarah Paradis, Jordon D. Hemingway","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01855-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01855-5","url":null,"abstract":"Pyrite (iron sulfide) formation and burial in sediments decreases atmospheric CO2 and increases O2 levels. However, the environmental and sedimentological conditions that regulate pyrite burial remain poorly constrained. Here we investigate such controlling mechanisms using a non-dimensional diagenetic model that extracts the natural variables governing pyrite formation rate and sulfur isotopic composition (δ34S). Both properties are controlled by the local ratios of organic carbon content to sulfate concentration and organic carbon reactivity to sedimentation rate; formation rate is additionally sensitive to reactive iron delivery. Using only globally interpolated boundary conditions, our model accurately predicts signals in 216 sediment cores distributed across the modern ocean. Extrapolating this, we estimate a global pyrite burial flux of 7.0 × 1012 mol S yr−1 (sensitivity test range: 2.5 × 1012 to 19.0 × 1012 mol S yr−1) with a weighted-average δ34S value of −4‰ (range: −8 to +3‰). This flux is substantially larger than terrestrial pyrite oxidation, indicating that the sulfur cycle is currently not in steady state but is instead described by net pyrite burial and thus atmospheric O2 accumulation. Finally, we interpret the geologic pyrite δ34S record within this model framework and identify flooded shelf area as the main control on pyrite burial throughout the Phanerozoic Eon.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":18.3,"publicationDate":"2025-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145746827","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}
Pub Date : 2025-12-09DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01862-6
Casey M. S. Schine, Jens-Erik Lund Snee, Alex Lyford, Gert van Dijken, Kevin R. Arrigo
Iron is the primary limiting nutrient for phytoplankton growth, and consequently CO2 drawdown, in the Southern Ocean. A recurring phytoplankton bloom above the Australian Antarctic Ridge was recently attributed to hydrothermally sourced iron. Here we examine satellite remote-sensing estimates of net primary production, earthquake location catalogues and Lagrangian plume modelling of particle trajectories in surface ocean currents to show that interannual variability in net primary production is related to seismicity and the advective spread of downstream surface waters. By spatially decomposing the relationship between seismicity, advective spread and net primary production, we demonstrate that net primary production at the surface, above the hydrothermal vents, can be predicted by elevated seismicity in the months before the growing season. Farther from the vents, greater advective spread reduces net primary production. We hypothesize that the connection between earthquakes and net primary production is mediated by the link between seismicity and hydrothermal emissions while advective spread controls the dilution of entrained iron; however, the physical mechanism behind the rapid surfacing of hydrothermal iron is still unknown. These findings challenge prevailing views on how geophysical processes influence ocean primary production.
{"title":"Southern Ocean net primary production influenced by seismically modulated hydrothermal iron","authors":"Casey M. S. Schine, Jens-Erik Lund Snee, Alex Lyford, Gert van Dijken, Kevin R. Arrigo","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01862-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01862-6","url":null,"abstract":"Iron is the primary limiting nutrient for phytoplankton growth, and consequently CO2 drawdown, in the Southern Ocean. A recurring phytoplankton bloom above the Australian Antarctic Ridge was recently attributed to hydrothermally sourced iron. Here we examine satellite remote-sensing estimates of net primary production, earthquake location catalogues and Lagrangian plume modelling of particle trajectories in surface ocean currents to show that interannual variability in net primary production is related to seismicity and the advective spread of downstream surface waters. By spatially decomposing the relationship between seismicity, advective spread and net primary production, we demonstrate that net primary production at the surface, above the hydrothermal vents, can be predicted by elevated seismicity in the months before the growing season. Farther from the vents, greater advective spread reduces net primary production. We hypothesize that the connection between earthquakes and net primary production is mediated by the link between seismicity and hydrothermal emissions while advective spread controls the dilution of entrained iron; however, the physical mechanism behind the rapid surfacing of hydrothermal iron is still unknown. These findings challenge prevailing views on how geophysical processes influence ocean primary production.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":18.3,"publicationDate":"2025-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145705140","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}
Pub Date : 2025-12-08DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01865-3
Simon L. Harley
Heat-producing elements like uranium and thorium are depleted in the lower crust. The geochemistry of crustal rocks suggests ultrahigh melting temperatures are needed to produce this depletion and may also help stabilize the crust.
{"title":"Refining the crust","authors":"Simon L. Harley","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01865-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01865-3","url":null,"abstract":"Heat-producing elements like uranium and thorium are depleted in the lower crust. The geochemistry of crustal rocks suggests ultrahigh melting temperatures are needed to produce this depletion and may also help stabilize the crust.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"18 12","pages":"1189-1190"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145699216","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}
Pub Date : 2025-12-08DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01886-y
A belt of seaweed has formed across the tropical Atlantic nearly every year since 2011, despite reduction in its extent elsewhere. The causes of this growth are now coming into clearer focus.
{"title":"Tightening the Sargassum belt","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01886-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01886-y","url":null,"abstract":"A belt of seaweed has formed across the tropical Atlantic nearly every year since 2011, despite reduction in its extent elsewhere. The causes of this growth are now coming into clearer focus.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"18 12","pages":"1181-1181"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-025-01886-y.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145699208","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}
Pub Date : 2025-12-08DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01852-8
Mayra D. Manrique-Ortega, Henri N. Bernard, José Luis Ruvalcaba Sil
Jadeite is a green jade mineral that forms in unique geological environments. Mayra Manrique-Ortega and colleagues explain its archaeological importance for pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations.
{"title":"Mesoamerican beliefs sculpted in jadeite","authors":"Mayra D. Manrique-Ortega, Henri N. Bernard, José Luis Ruvalcaba Sil","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01852-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01852-8","url":null,"abstract":"Jadeite is a green jade mineral that forms in unique geological environments. Mayra Manrique-Ortega and colleagues explain its archaeological importance for pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"18 12","pages":"1193-1193"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145699213","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}
Pub Date : 2025-12-08DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01871-5
David M. Baker, Mengqiu Wang
Our oceans are changing rapidly, with climate-driven shifts in circulation and nutrient cycles reshaping marine ecosystems in profound ways. One of the most visible and disruptive outcomes is the explosive growth of Sargassum — a floating brown alga that has, since 2011, formed vast rafts stretching thousands of kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean. Once largely confined to the Sargasso Sea, where it provides habitat for fish, turtles, and eels, Sargassum now inundates coastlines from West Africa to the Caribbean Islands and Florida. In a new report in Nature Geoscience, Jung et al.1 have identified the source of nutrients fueling Sargassum blooms, which are increasing as a result of climate change.
{"title":"Climate change fuels the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt","authors":"David M. Baker, Mengqiu Wang","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01871-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01871-5","url":null,"abstract":"Our oceans are changing rapidly, with climate-driven shifts in circulation and nutrient cycles reshaping marine ecosystems in profound ways. One of the most visible and disruptive outcomes is the explosive growth of Sargassum — a floating brown alga that has, since 2011, formed vast rafts stretching thousands of kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean. Once largely confined to the Sargasso Sea, where it provides habitat for fish, turtles, and eels, Sargassum now inundates coastlines from West Africa to the Caribbean Islands and Florida. In a new report in Nature Geoscience, Jung et al.1 have identified the source of nutrients fueling Sargassum blooms, which are increasing as a result of climate change.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"18 12","pages":"1185-1186"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145699215","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}
Pub Date : 2025-12-08DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01846-6
Ronald Amundson, Jonathan Sanderman, Kyungsoo Yoo, Maedeh Chitsaz, Anna Abramova, Katerina Georgiou
The radiocarbon content of soil organic carbon (C) is assumed to reflect the carbon’s biological reactivity. Large soil radiocarbon ages are interpreted to mean that the C will have a slow response to environmental perturbations such as the effects of warming on the soil microbial C decomposition rate. Here we show that downward advective transport of soil C is an important process affecting soil C ages, leading to an inevitable increase in radiocarbon age with depth even if the decomposition rates remain constant. Thus, the increasing radiocarbon ages of C with depth do not directly imply a corresponding decrease in C reactivity as a function of depth. On the basis of theory and an independent assessment of soil C decomposition rates, the radiocarbon profiles (and content for a given depth) were calculated for over 3,000 soils in the USA and were compared to observational results based on measured soil radiocarbon. The first-order coherence between the two entirely differing approaches suggests the fundamental importance of transport and the implication that the soil C decomposition rate constant may be relatively invariant with depth. These insights may serve to reduce biases in Earth system models that presently do not match the observed depth patterns in soil C or its radiocarbon content. A reassessment of soil radiocarbon profiles, which shows a strong influence of vertical transport processes, suggests that soil organic carbon is similarly responsive to environmental changes regardless of depth.
{"title":"Neglecting vertical transport leads to underestimated soil carbon dynamics","authors":"Ronald Amundson, Jonathan Sanderman, Kyungsoo Yoo, Maedeh Chitsaz, Anna Abramova, Katerina Georgiou","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01846-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01846-6","url":null,"abstract":"The radiocarbon content of soil organic carbon (C) is assumed to reflect the carbon’s biological reactivity. Large soil radiocarbon ages are interpreted to mean that the C will have a slow response to environmental perturbations such as the effects of warming on the soil microbial C decomposition rate. Here we show that downward advective transport of soil C is an important process affecting soil C ages, leading to an inevitable increase in radiocarbon age with depth even if the decomposition rates remain constant. Thus, the increasing radiocarbon ages of C with depth do not directly imply a corresponding decrease in C reactivity as a function of depth. On the basis of theory and an independent assessment of soil C decomposition rates, the radiocarbon profiles (and content for a given depth) were calculated for over 3,000 soils in the USA and were compared to observational results based on measured soil radiocarbon. The first-order coherence between the two entirely differing approaches suggests the fundamental importance of transport and the implication that the soil C decomposition rate constant may be relatively invariant with depth. These insights may serve to reduce biases in Earth system models that presently do not match the observed depth patterns in soil C or its radiocarbon content. A reassessment of soil radiocarbon profiles, which shows a strong influence of vertical transport processes, suggests that soil organic carbon is similarly responsive to environmental changes regardless of depth.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"18 12","pages":"1239-1244"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145699212","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}
Pub Date : 2025-12-05DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01895-x
Naomi Ochwat, Ted Scambos, Robert S. Anderson, J. Paul Winberry, Adrian Luckman, Etienne Berthier, Maud Bernat, Yulia K. Antropova
{"title":"Publisher Correction: Record grounded glacier retreat caused by an ice plain calving process","authors":"Naomi Ochwat, Ted Scambos, Robert S. Anderson, J. Paul Winberry, Adrian Luckman, Etienne Berthier, Maud Bernat, Yulia K. Antropova","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01895-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01895-x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":18.3,"publicationDate":"2025-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145680692","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}