Decades of research on river deltas identify gaps in our knowledge of delta behavior and the tools required to fill them in.
Research Spotlights
Research spotlights are plain-language summaries of recent articles published in AGU’s suite of 24 journals.
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Reforestation as a Local Cooling Mechanism
Reforestation has been shown to cool surface temperatures, and a novel study suggests it may also reduce air temperature up to several stories above the ground.
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Chinese Swamp Core Reveals 47,000 Years of Monsoon History
Magnetic analysis of mineral composition supports the importance of tropical climate processes in shaping long-term monsoon patterns.
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Floating Patches of Soil Nutrients in Soil Help Explain Arctic Thawing
Nutrient-rich diapirs have a complex relationship with soil microbes and play an important role in carbon and nitrogen nutrient cycling, making them crucial for understanding feedbacks in the Arctic.
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Florida Coastlines Respond to Sea Level Rise
For more than a century, carbon burial rates have been increasing on some southern Florida coasts. Scientists now verify this trend and propose an explanation.
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Microbial Mechanisms Change with the Seasons
Microbes living in the sand on a barrier island alter the way they break down organic matter as their environment changes throughout the year, which has implications for the surrounding water column.
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How Mars’s Magnetic Field Let Its Atmosphere Slip Away
A planet’s magnetic field usually protects its atmosphere from being blown away by its star. But new research suggests Mars’s weak magnetic field may have helped its atmosphere escape.
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New Models Give Global Picture of Mercury Content in Oceans
Concentrations of methylated mercury in high latitudes show the importance of sunlight and biological activity for cycling the metal.
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Snowpack Data Sets Put to the Test
A new study compares the accuracy of three observation-based methods of calculating snow water equivalent, a key component in water management.
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Space-Based Data Expand Understanding of Crustal Deformation
Researchers used the largest GPS data set yet to examine deformation of the crust across continental China and its implications for tectonic activity.