Highlight articles

This page features highlight articles from EGU's open access journals Biogeosciences, Geoscientific Model Development and SOIL. These articles of particular interest are selected by journal editors.

162 items found

10 20 50

Responses of an abyssal meiobenthic community to short-term burial with crushed nodule particles in the south-east Pacific

To elucidate the potential effects of crushed nodule particle deposition on abyssal meiobenthos, we covered abyssal soft sediment in the Peru Basin (4200 m depth) with approximately 2 cm of this nodule material for 11 d. About half of the meiobenthos migrated from the sediment into the added material, and nematode feeding type proportions in that added layer were altered. These results considerably contribute to our understanding of the short-term responses of deep-sea meiobenthos to burial.

Reciprocal bias compensation and ensuing uncertainties in model-based climate projections: pelagic biogeochemistry versus ocean mixing

Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions trigger complex climate feedbacks. Output form Earth system models provides a basis for related political decision-making. One challenge is to arrive at reliable model parameter estimates for the ocean biogeochemistry module. We illustrate pitfalls through which flaws in the ocean module are masked by wrongly tuning the biogeochemistry and discuss ensuing uncertainties in climate projections.

Terrainbento 1.0: a Python package for multi-model analysis in long-term drainage basin evolution

Terrainbento 1.0 is a Python package for modeling the evolution of the surface of the Earth over geologic time (e.g., thousands to millions of years). Despite many decades of effort by the geomorphology community, there is no one established governing equation for the evolution of topography. Terrainbento 1.0 thus provides 28 alternative models that support hypothesis testing and multi-model analysis in landscape evolution.

Devito (v3.1.0): an embedded domain-specific language for finite differences and geophysical exploration

This paper presents Devito, a Python-based software. The aim of this software is to provide a high-level simple interface to users for the description and discretization of the mathematical definition of the physics. This research initially started as an attempt to improve research time, portability, and performance in exploration geophysics. We present the latest version of the software that is already making an impact in academics and industry.

Carbon cycling in the North American coastal ocean: a synthesis

We review and synthesize available information on coastal ocean carbon fluxes around North America (NA). There is overwhelming evidence, compiled and discussed here, that the NA coastal margins act as a sink. Our synthesis shows the great diversity in processes driving carbon fluxes in different coastal regions, highlights remaining gaps in observations and models, and discusses current and anticipated future trends with respect to carbon fluxes and acidification.

On the role of soil water retention characteristic on aerobic microbial respiration

Soil water is a medium from which microbes acquire resources and within which they are able to move. Occupancy and availability of water and oxygen gas in soils are mutually exclusive. In addition, as soil dries the remaining water is held with an increasing degree of adhesive energy, which restricts microbes’ ability to extract resources from water. We introduce a mathematical model that describes these interacting effects and organic matter decomposition.

The Open Global Glacier Model (OGGM) v1.1

Mountain glaciers are one of the few remaining subsystems of the global climate system for which no globally applicable community-driven model exists. Here we present the Open Global Glacier Model (OGGM; www.oggm.org), developed to provide a modular and open-source numerical model framework for simulating past and future change of any glacier in the world.

Towards a more complete quantification of the global carbon cycle

Biogeosciences
DOI 10.5194/bg-16-831-2019
14 February 2019

Globally, C is added to the atmosphere from fossil fuels and deforestation, balanced by ocean uptake and atmospheric increase. The difference (residual sink) is equated to plant uptake. But this omits cement carbonation; transport to oceans by dust; riverine organic C and volatile organics; and increased C in plastic, bitumen, wood, landfills, and lakes. Their inclusion reduces the residual sink from 3.6 to 2.1 GtC yr^-1 and thus the inferred ability of the biosphere to alter human C emissions.

Mineral formation induced by cable bacteria performing long-distance electron transport in marine sediments

Biogeosciences
DOI 10.5194/bg-16-811-2019
13 February 2019

Multicellular cable bacteria form long filaments that can reach lengths of several centimeters. They affect the chemistry and mineralogy of their surroundings and vice versa. How the surroundings affect the cable bacteria is investigated. They show three different types of biomineral formation: (1) a polymer containing phosphorus in their cells, (2) a sheath of clay surrounding the surface of the filament and (3) the encrustation of a filament via a solid phase containing iron and phosphorus.

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition of leaves, litter, and soils of various ecosystems along an elevational and land-use gradient at Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

Mount Kilimanjaro is an iconic environmental asset under serious threat due to increasing human pressures and climate change constraints. We studied variations in the stable isotopic composition of carbon and nitrogen in plant, litter, and soil material sampled along a strong land-use and altitudinal gradient. Our results show that, besides management, increasing temperatures in a changing climate may promote carbon and nitrogen losses, thus altering the stability of Kilimanjaro ecosystems.

BG Biogeosciences Highlight articles