Phytoplankton and other marine plants produce half of Earth’s atmospheric oxygen and have big effects on food webs and climate. To do so, they rely on nutrients from the sky that are hard to quantify.
Health & Ecosystems
Posted inNews
The Best Way to Kill Trees to Create Habitat
Standing dead trees—or snags—shelter animals, store carbon, and cycle nutrients. A long-term monitoring study found that lopping off a tree’s top branches is a good way to turn it into a snag within about 20 years.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Challenges and Prospects for Modeling Lake Water Temperature in a Changing Climate
Climate change is having a significant impact on the temperature dynamics of lakes worldwide, affirming the need for accurate modeling to inform management and conservation strategies.
Posted inNews
Roman Plagues Struck During Cool, Dry Periods
Marine sediments from the Gulf of Taranto offer a high-resolution look at climate during ancient disease outbreaks.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Urban Nature Is Often Plentiful but Inaccessible
A novel research framework deepens understanding of urban nature accessibility and highlights progress toward green space goals.
Posted inNews
Antarctic Ice Cores Capture Heavy Metal Pollution—And History
An ice core record stretching back more than 2 millennia hints at the mining and metallurgy that waxed and waned with events such as wars and epidemics.
Posted inScience Updates
Five Key Needs for Addressing Flood Injustice
Better data and assessment metrics—and improved researcher involvement in communities—are needed to understand and redress inequitable vulnerabilities to and recoveries from flooding.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Metals Could Reveal Corals’ Past Lives
Examining the role of stable metal isotopes in biological activities such as photosynthesis provides a promising new avenue of research into how coral responds to environmental stressors.
Posted inNews
Poorer Countries Face Heavier Consequences of Climate Change
As forests shift to higher latitudes, nations to reckon with losses of both market and nonmarket ecosystem benefits.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Climate Models Often Miss How Plants Respond to Drought
New research suggests that Earth system models are underestimating the effect of low moisture levels on plants’ abilities to exchange carbon, water, and energy with the atmosphere.