A radioactive isotope produced by nuclear weapons reveals that plants take up more carbon—but hold on to it for less time—than current climate models suggest.
isotopes
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Radioactive Isotopes Trace Hidden Arctic Currents
Tracing anthropogenic radionuclides shows researchers how water from the Atlantic flows into and mingles with Arctic currents.
Posted inNews
Toxic Metal on the Rise in the Baltic Sea
Postwar reconstruction is likely the cause of elevated thallium levels, but low-oxygen, high-sulfide conditions keep the material, which is extremely dangerous to mammalian health, from moving into the human food chain.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Mantle Heat May Have Boosted Earth’s Crust 3 Billion Years Ago
Information from igneous zircon molecules gives researchers new insight into the workings of inner Earth.
Posted inScience Updates
Submarine Avalanche Deposits Hold Clues to Past Earthquakes
Scientists are making progress on illuminating how undersea sedimentary deposits called turbidites form and on reconstructing the complex histories they record. But it’s not an easy task.
Posted inNews
Hiroshima Fallout May Offer a Glimpse of the Early Solar System
Bits of glass called Hiroshimaites may have formed by processes similar to those that formed the Sun and the planets.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
What Happens to Nutrients After They Leave Agricultural Fields?
To better quantify the fate of nutrients after they are released from agricultural fields, scientists examine storage and nitrate export regimes in agricultural hydrology systems.
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 inEditors' Highlights
How Nutrients Get Back Up to the Surface Ocean
A new dual isotope tracer technique is used to assess the role of a number of poorly understood nutrient supply mechanisms fueling biological productivity in the ocean.
Posted inNews
Looking for Climate Clues in China’s Great Wall
Looking for Climate Clues in China’s Great Wall
In northwestern China, desert conditions have preserved the farthest reaches of the Great Wall. Scientists are now exploring 2,000-year-old building materials for signs of the region’s past climate.