A global analysis of more than 2,300 seawater samples found that largely unmonitored industrial compounds are widespread across oceans and may be changing crucial biological and carbon cycling processes.
carbon cycle
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Eddy or Not: Do Eddies Actually Transport That Much Carbon?
New data from remote floats around the world indicate the eddy subduction pump is of only secondary importance.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Global Observations Reveal Rapid Reorganization of Ocean Nutrients
Data reveal that changes in nutrient levels vary depending on depth and distance from shore—and that these changes are happening more quickly than scientists realized.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Severe 2023 Drought: Sinking Carbon Sink in the Amazon
The Amazon forest has been a reliable carbon sink, soaking up some of humanity’s carbon emissions, but a severe drought in 2023 adds to growing concern that this ecosystem service is at risk.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Our Ocean’s “Natural Antacids” Act Faster Than We Thought
New evidence from New Zealand suggests that calcium carbonate dissolution occurs not just over millennial timescales, but over annual and decadal ones too.
Posted inNews
Alligators May Boost Carbon Storage in Coastal Wetlands
Research suggests that American alligators help coastal wetlands retain more carbon, linking predator recovery in the southeastern United States to ecosystem function and climate processes.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Marine Snow Grows Faster and Fluffier as It Sinks
New observations highlight how abiotic and biotic processes influence the tiny oceanic particles.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Managing Carbon Stocks Requires an Integrated View of the Carbon Cycle
The carbon cycle community calls for an integrated carbon observing system leveraging near-surface partial-column data to better resolve finer spatial scales where key processes and decisions occur.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
New River Chemistry Insights May Boost Coastal Ocean Modeling
By more realistically accounting for river inputs, researchers reduced overestimation of the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by coastal waters.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
What Could Happen to the Ocean’s Carbon If AMOC Collapses
Mass glacier melting may have led this influential ocean current system to collapse at the end of the last ice age. A pair of modeling studies examines how such a collapse could affect dissolved inorganic carbon and carbon isotopes in Earth’s oceans.