New Papers (2013/06/11-2013/06/17)

＜Nature＞

1. Reindeer keep the ground cool

Nature 498, 140 (13 June 2013) doi:10.1038/498140a Published online 12 June 2013

Reindeer herding practices and their effect on vegetation in northern Scandinavia may influence when snow melts in spring.

2. Climate and war: A call for more research

Neil Adger, Jon Barnett & Geoff Dabelko

Nature 498,171(13 June 2013) doi:10.1038/498171b Published online 12 June 2013

The possibility that climate change could be responsible for violent conflict (A. Solow Nature 497,179–180; 2013) is starting to influence how governments frame and react to climate change. 

3. Climate and war: No clear-cut schism

Michael Brzoska & Jürgen Scheffran

Nature 498, 171 (13 June 2013) doi:10.1038/498171c Published online12 June 2013

They are sceptical about the effectiveness of Andrew Solow's proposals for cooling the debate over a possible link between wars and climate change ( Nature 497 , 179 – 180 ; 2013 ).

4. Sea stars shed too-hot arms

Nature 498, 140 (13 June 2013) doi:10.1038/498140c Published online 12 June 2013

Sea stars may use their arms to keep their central cores cool when high temperatures threaten their survival.

5. Brazil: Save Caatinga from drought disaster

Roberto Leonan Morim Novaes, Saulo Felix & Renan de França Souza

Nature 498,170 (13 June 2013) doi:10.1038/498170a Published online 12 June 2013

Whether natural fluctuations in temperature and rainfall or climate change are to blame, the lack of water is killing livestock and destroying crops.

6. Transgenic fish: European concerns over GM salmon

J. Robert Britton & Rodolphe E. Gozlan

Nature 498,171 (13 June 2013) doi:10.1038/498171e Published online 12 June 2013

7. Ecology: Conservation in captivity

Amanda Mascarelli

Nature 498, 261–263 (13 June 2013) doi:10.1038/nj7453-261a Published online 12 June 2013

Zoos provide an opportunity to work on crucial issues of biodiversity while reaching out to the public.

8. Conservation: Spare our restored soil

Johan Six

Nature 498,180–181 (13 June 2013) doi:10.1038/498180a Published online 12 June 2013

The conversion of poor-quality arable lands to grassland has prevented soil erosion and sequestered carbon. A study finds that greenhouse gases will be emitted if these lands return to cultivation, especially if they are ploughed.

9. Barium distributions in teeth reveal early-life dietary transitions in primates

Christine Austin, Tanya M. Smith, Asa Bradman, Katie Hinde, Renaud Joannes-Boyau, David Bishop, Dominic J. Hare, Philip Doble, Brenda Eskenazi & Manish Arora

Nature 498, 216–219 (13 June 2013) doi:10.1038/nature12169 Received03 December 2012 Accepted 08 April 2013 Published online 22 May 2013

＜Science＞

10. Redox Heterogeneity in Mid-Ocean Ridge Basalts as a Function of Mantle Source

Elizabeth Cottrell and Katherine A. Kelley

Science 14 June 2013:
Vol. 340 no. 6138 pp. 1314-1317 DOI: 10.1126/science.1233299

Negative correlations between Fe 3+ /ΣFe ratios and indices of mantle enrichment—such as 87 Sr/ 86 Sr, 208 Pb/ 204 Pb, Ba/La, and Nb/Zr ratios—reveal that enriched mantle is more reduced than depleted mantle.

11. On the Trail of Ancient Killers

Ann Gibbons

Science 14 June 2013: Vol. 340 

no. 6138 pp.1278-1282 DOI: 10.1126/science.340.6138.1278

Armed with new methods, researchers are interrogating the DNA of centuries-old pathogens extracted from the bones and teeth of victims.

12. Genome-Wide Comparison of Medieval and Modern Mycobacterium leprae

Verena J. Schuenemann, Pushpendra Singh, Thomas A. Mendum, Ben Krause-Kyora, Günter Jäger, Kirsten I. Bos, Alexander Herbig, Christos Economou, Andrej Benjak, Philippe Busso, Almut Nebel, Jesper L. Boldsen, Anna Kjellström, Huihai Wu, Graham R. Stewart,G. Michael Taylor, Peter Bauer, Oona Y.-C. Lee, Houdini H.T. Wu, David E. Minnikin, Gurdyal S. Besra, Katie Tucker, Simon Roffey, Samba O. Sow, Stewart T. Cole, Kay Nieselt, and Johannes Krause

Science 1238286 Published　online 13 June2013 [DOI:10.1126/science.1238286]

The exceptional preservation of M. leprae biomarkers, both DNA and mycolic acids, in ancient skeletons has major implications for palaeomicrobiology and human pathogen evolution.

13. Geophysical Exploration Linking Deep Earth and Backyard Geology

Richard A. Kerr

Science 14 June 2013: Vol. 340 no. 6138 pp. 1283-1285
DOI: 10.1126/science.340.6138.1283

Big Science came to solid-Earth studies when the $400 million EarthScope program offered a sharper view of the interior that could help geologists; it's working, mostly.

14. The Age of Man: A Father Figure

U. Kutschera

Science 14 June 2013: 1287.

In the News & Analysis story “Archaeologists say the 'Anthropocene' is here—but it began long ago” (M. Balter, 19 April, p. 261 ).

15. The Age of Man: Outpacing Evolution

Josef Settele and Joachim H. Spangenberg

Science 14 June 2013: 1287.

16. Water in the Balance

James S. Famiglietti and Matthew Rodell

Science 14 June 2013: 1300-1301.

Satellite data may enable improved management of regional groundwater reserves.

17. Hydrogen Isotopes in Lunar Volcanic Glasses and Melt Inclusions Reveal a Carbonaceous Chondrite Heritage

Alberto E. Saal, Erik H. Hauri, James A. Van Orman, and Malcolm J. Rutherford

Science 14 June 2013: 1317-1320.
Published online 9 May 2013 [DOI:10.1126/science.1235142]

Hydrogen isotope ratios in lunar samples imply a common origin for Earth’s and the Moon’s water.

18. Clarifying the Dominant Sources and Mechanisms of Cirrus Cloud Formation

Daniel J. Cziczo, Karl D. Froyd, Corinna Hoose, Eric J. Jensen, Minghui Diao, Mark A. Zondlo, Jessica B. Smith,Cynthia H. Twohy, and Daniel M. Murphy

Science 14 June 2013: 1320-1324.
Published online 9 May 2013 [DOI:10.1126/science.1234145]

Mineral dust and metallic particles initiate most ice nucleus condensation during cirrus cloud formation.

＜PNAS＞

19. Eocene cooling linked to early flow across the Tasmanian Gateway

Peter K. Bijl, James A. P. Bendle, Steven M. Bohaty, Jörg Pross, Stefan Schouten, Lisa Tauxe, Catherine E. Stickley, Robert M. McKay, Ursula Röhl, Matthew Olney, Appy Sluijs, Carlota Escutia, Henk Brinkhuis, and Expedition 318 Scientists

PNAS 2013 110 (24) 9645-9650; published ahead of print May 29, 2013,doi:10.1073/pnas.1220872110

They present marine microfossil and organic geochemical records spanning the early-to-middle Eocene transition from the Wilkes Land Margin, East Antarctica. Dinoflagellate biogeography and sea surface temperature paleothermometry reveal that the earliest throughflow of a westbound Antarctic Counter Current began ∼49–50 Ma through a southern opening of the Tasmanian Gateway.

20. Multidecadal to multicentury scale collapses of Northern Hemisphere monsoons over the past millennium

Yemane Asmerom, Victor J. Polyak, Jessica B. T. Rasmussen, Stephen J. Burns, and Matthew Lachniet

PNAS 2013 110 (24) 9651-9656; published ahead of print May 28, 2013,doi:10.1073/pnas.1214870110

They show both short-term and long-term climate variability over the last 1,500 y from annual band thickness and stable isotope speleothem data.

Their findings seem to suggest stronger (wetter) Northern Hemisphere monsoons with increased warming.

21. Asynchronous marine-terrestrial signals of the last deglacial warming in East Asia associated with low- and high-latitude climate changes

Deke Xu, Houyuan Lu, Naiqin Wu, Zhenxia Liu, Tiegang Li, Caiming Shen, and Luo Wang

PNAS 2013 110 (24) 9657-9662; published ahead of print May 29, 2013,doi:10.1073/pnas.1300025110

They argue that early warming seawater of the WPWP, driven by low-latitude insolation and trade winds, moved northward via the Kuroshio Current and triggered marine warming along the ECS around 20–19 kaBP similar to that in the WPWP.

22. Present and future global distributions of the marine Cyanobacteria Prochlorococcusand Synechococcus

Pedro Flombaum, José L. Gallegos, Rodolfo A. Gordillo, José Rincón, Lina L. Zabala, Nianzhi Jiao, David M. Karl, William K. W. Li, Michael W. Lomas, Daniele Veneziano, Carolina S. Vera, Jasper A. Vrugt, and Adam C. Martiny

PNAS 2013 110 (24) 9824-9829; published ahead of print May 23, 2013,doi:10.1073/pnas.1307701110

Their global niche models suggest that oceanic microbial communities will experience complex changes as a result of projected future climate conditions.

23. Insights into foraminiferal influences on microfabrics of microbialites at Highborne Cay, Bahamas

Joan M. Bernhard, Virginia P. Edgcomb, Pieter T. Visscher, Anna McIntyre-Wressnig, Roger E. Summons, Mary L. Bouxsein, Leeann Louis, and Marleen Jeglinski

PNAS 2013 110 (24) 9830-9834; published ahead of print May 28, 2013,doi:10.1073/pnas.1221721110

The foraminiferal impacts on modern microbialites, their results indicate that the microbialite fossil record may reflect the impact of the radiation of these protists.

24. Soil biotic legacy effects of extreme weather events influence plant invasiveness

Annelein Meisner, Gerlinde B. De Deyn, Wietse de Boer, and Wim H. van der Putten

PNAS 2013 110 (24) 9835-9838; published ahead of print May 28, 2013,doi:10.1073/pnas.1300922110

They report that drought and rainfall effects on soil processes and biota affect the performance of exotics and natives in plant communities.

25. Regeneration of Little Ice Age bryophytes emerging from a polar glacier with implications of totipotency in extreme environments

Catherine La Farge, Krista H. Williams, and John H. England

PNAS 2013 110 (24) 9839-9844; published ahead of print May 28, 2013,doi:10.1073/pnas.1304199110

Across the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, widespread ice retreat during the 20th century has sharply accelerated since 2004. Their results include a unique successful regeneration of subglacial bryophytes following 400 y of ice entombment.

＜Nature Communications＞

26. Carbon dioxide concentration dictates alternative methanogenic pathways in oil reservoirs

Daisuke Mayumi, Jan Dolfing, Susumu Sakata, Haruo Maeda, Yoshihiro Miyagawa, Masayuki Ikarashi, Hideyuki Tamaki, Mio Takeuchi, Cindy H. Nakatsu, Yoichi Kamagata

Nature Communications 4, Article number:1998 doi:10.1038/ncomms2998

They construct microcosms mimicking reservoir conditions (55 °C, 5 MPa) using high-temperature oil reservoir samples. The results present a possibility of carbon capture and storage for enhanced microbial energy production in deep subsurface environments that can mitigate global warming and energy depletion.