New Papers (2014/03/04-2013/03/10)

＜Nature＞

1. Algae dealt blow to ancient whales

Nature 507, 11 (06 March 2014) doi:10.1038/507011d

The unearthing of more than 40 marine mammal fossils (pictured) at a site in Atacama, Chile, has revealed that they probably died en masse in four events due to toxic algae.

2. Japan caught up in energy dilemma

David Cyranoski

05 March 2014

As the third anniversary of the Fukushima disaster nears, the nation is faltering in its resolution to shun nuclear power.

3.  Missing link in mantle dynamics

Nature 507, 42–43 (06 March 2014) doi:10.1038/nature13064

Greg Hirth

The discovery of crystallographic imperfections known as disclinations in the most profuse mineral in Earth's upper mantle has the potential to solve a problem that has vexed mineral physicists for decades. 

4. Rate of tree carbon accumulation increases continuously with tree size

N. L. Stephenson, A. J. Das, R. Condit, S. E. Russo, P. J. Bake et al.

A global analysis shows that for most tree species the largest trees are the fastest-growing trees, a finding that resolves conflicting assumptions about tree growth and that has implications for understanding forest carbon dynamics, resource allocation trade-offs within trees and plant senescence.

＜Science＞

5. Chemical Atlas Shows Where Seas Are Tainted—And Where They Can Bloom

David Malakoff

Science 7 March 2014: Vol. 343 no. 6175 p. 1070
DOI: 10.1126/science.343.6175.1070

Oceanographers have released a digital atlas containing remarkably detailed maps of ocean chemistry.

6. Europe's Copernicus Offers a Daily Dose of Earth Data

Daniel Clery

Science 7 March 2014: Vol. 343 no. 6175 p. 1071
DOI: 10.1126/science.343.6175.1071

Early in April, Europe will launch the first satellite in its Copernicus program: a fleet of a dozen environmental monitoring spacecraft designed to study Earth's oceans, changes in land use, and atmosphere.

7. Culturing the Forest

Tobias Plieninger

Science 7 March 2014: Vol. 343 no. 6175 pp. 1078-1079
DOI: 10.1126/science.1250655

Examining the widespread resurgence of woodlands, the authors build a multifaceted view of forests as social-ecological systems.

8. More Common Than We Think

Donald Turcotte

Science 7 March 2014: Vol. 343 no. 6175 p. 1079
DOI: 10.1126/science.1250654

Kieffer offers an engaging, fast-moving introduction to natural disasters caused by Earth's ongoing geological processes.

9. Why Should We Care About Temporary Waterways?

V. Acuña, T. Datry, J. Marshall, D. Barceló, C. N. Dahm, A. Ginebreda, G. McGregor, S. Sabater, K. Tockner, and M. A. Palmer

Science 7 March 2014: Vol. 343 no. 6175 pp. 1080-1081
DOI: 10.1126/science.1246666

Intermittently flowing streams and rivers should be recognized, afforded protection, and better managed.

10. Water Loss from the Great Lakes

Andrew D. Gronewold and Craig A. Stow

Science 7 March 2014: Vol. 343 no. 6175 pp. 1084-1085
DOI: 10.1126/science.1249978

Knowledge of the drivers behind recent record low water levels in the North American Great Lakes can help water resource management planning.

11. Rapid Reductions in North Atlantic Deep Water During the Peak of the Last Interglacial Period

Eirik Vinje Galaasen, Ulysses S. Ninnemann, Nil Irvalı, Helga (Kikki) F. Kleiven, Yair Rosenthal, Catherine Kissel, and David A. Hodell

Science 7 March 2014: Vol. 343 no. 6175 pp. 1129-1132
DOI: 10.1126/science.1248667

Deep ocean circulation was less stable during the last interglacial periods than previously supposed.

12. Altitudinal Changes in Malaria Incidence in Highlands of Ethiopia and Colombia

Science 7 March 2014: Vol. 343 no. 6175 pp. 1154-1158
DOI: 10.1126/science.1244325

A. S. Siraj, M. Santos-Vega, M. J. Bouma, D. Yadeta, D. Ruiz Carrascal, and M. Pascual

Warmer years promote malaria cases at higher altitudes.

＜PNAS＞

13. Temporal acuity and the rate and dynamics of mass extinctions

Douglas H. Erwin

PNAS 2014 111 (9) 3203-3204; published ahead of print February 12, 2014,doi:10.1073/pnas.1400431111

14. Coevolution of life and landscapes

Stephen Porder

PNAS 2014 111 (9) 3207-3208; published ahead of print February 20, 2014,doi:10.1073/pnas.1400954111

The authors show that subtle variations in soil parent rock across the granitic core of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California correlate with dramatic ecosystem differences, creating vegetation-free zones adjacent to groves of giant sequoias.

15. Unravelling the complexity of pollution by the oil sands industry

David W. Schindler

PNAS 2014 111 (9) 3209-3210; published ahead of print February 14, 2014,doi:10.1073/pnas.1400511111

The oil sands industry and government officials have claimed that all pollutants carried by the lower Athabasca River system were the result of soil erosion, forest fires, and other natural phenomena.

16. The elephant, the blind, and the intersectoral intercomparison of climate impacts

Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Katja Frieler, and Pavel Kabat

PNAS 2014 111 (9) 3225-3227; published ahead of print December 17, 2013,doi:10.1073/pnas.1321791111

When decision makers discuss anthropogenic climate change, they often ignore the mighty elephant in the room, namely the question of what global warming really means on the ground.

17. The Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI–MIP): Project framework

Lila Warszawski, Katja Frieler, Veronika Huber, Franziska Piontek, Olivia Serdeczny, and Jacob Schewe

PNAS 2014 111 (9) 3228-3232; published ahead of print December 16, 2013,doi:10.1073/pnas.1312330110

18. Multisectoral climate impact hotspots in a warming world

Franziska Piontek, Christoph Müller, Thomas A. M. Pugh, Douglas B. Clark, Delphine Deryng,

et al.

PNAS 2014 111 (9) 3233-3238; published ahead of print December 16, 2013,doi:10.1073/pnas.1222471110

19. Constraints and potentials of future irrigation water availability on agricultural production under climate change

Joshua Elliott, Delphine Deryng, Christoph Müller, Katja Frieler, Markus Konzmann, Dieter Gerten, et al.

PNAS 2014 111 (9) 3239-3244; published ahead of print December 16, 2013,doi:10.1073/pnas.1222474110

They compare ensembles of water supply and demand projections driven by ensemble output from five global climate models.

20. Multimodel assessment of water scarcity under climate change

Jacob Schewe, Jens Heinke, Dieter Gerten, Ingjerd Haddeland, Nigel W. Arnell, Douglas B. Clark, et al.

PNAS 2014 111 (9) 3245-3250; published ahead of print December 16, 2013,doi:10.1073/pnas.1222460110

They show that climate change is likely to exacerbate regional and global water scarcity considerably.

21. Global water resources affected by human interventions and climate change

Ingjerd Haddeland, Jens Heinke, Hester Biemans, Stephanie Eisner, Martina Flörke, et al.

PNAS 2014 111 (9) 3251-3256; published ahead of print December 16, 2013,doi:10.1073/pnas.1222475110

Here, analyses of climate change and direct human impacts on the terrestrial water cycle are presented and compared using a multimodel approach.

22. First look at changes in flood hazard in the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project ensemble

Rutger Dankers, Nigel W. Arnell, Douglas B. Clark, Pete D. Falloon, Balázs M. Fekete, et al.

PNAS 2014 111 (9) 3257-3261; published ahead of print December 16, 2013,doi:10.1073/pnas.1302078110

In this paper they use river flow simulations from nine global hydrology and land surface models to explore uncertainties in the potential impacts of climate change on flood hazard at global scale.

23. Hydrological droughts in the 21st century, hotspots and uncertainties from a global multimodel ensemble experiment

Christel Prudhomme, Ignazio Giuntoli, 

Emma L. Robinson, 

Douglas B. Clark, 

Nigel W. Arnell, et al.

PNAS 2014 111 (9) 3262-3267; published ahead of print December 16, 2013,doi:10.1073/pnas.1222473110

Using an ensemble of 35 simulations, they show a likely increase in the global severity of drought by the end of 21st century, with regional hotspots including South America and Central and Western Europe in which the frequency of drought increases by more than 20%.

24. Assessing agricultural risks of climate change in the 21st century in a global gridded crop model intercomparison

Cynthia Rosenzweig, Joshua Elliott, Delphine Deryng, Alex C. Ruane, 

Christoph Müller,

PNAS 2014 111 (9) 3268-3273; published ahead of print December 16, 2013,doi:10.1073/pnas.1222463110

25. Climate change effects on agriculture: Economic responses to biophysical shocks

Gerald C. Nelson, Hugo Valin, Ronald D. Sands, Petr Havlík, Helal Ahammad, Delphine Deryng, et al.

PNAS 2014 111 (9) 3274-3279; published ahead of print December 16, 2013,doi:10.1073/pnas.1222465110

26. Carbon residence time dominates uncertainty in terrestrial vegetation responses to future climate and atmospheric CO₂

Andrew D. Friend, Wolfgang Lucht, Tim T. Rademacher, Rozenn Keribin, 

Richard Betts, et al.

PNAS 2014 111 (9) 3280-3285; published ahead of print December 16, 2013,doi:10.1073/pnas.1222477110

In contrast to previous global vegetation model studies, they emphasize the importance of uncertainties in projected changes in carbon residence times.

27. Impact of climate change on global malaria distribution

Cyril Caminade, Sari Kovats, Joacim Rocklov, Adrian M. Tompkins, 

Andrew P. Morse, et al.

PNAS 2014 111 (9) 3286-3291; published ahead of print February 3, 2014,doi:10.1073/pnas.1302089111

28. Coastal flood damage and adaptation costs under 21st century sea-level rise

Jochen Hinkel, Daniel Lincke, Athanasios T. Vafeidis, Mahé Perrette, 

Robert James Nicholls, et al.

PNAS 2014 111 (9) 3292-3297; published ahead of print February 3, 2014,doi:10.1073/pnas.1222469111

This paper presents the estimates derived by taking into account a wide range of uncertainties in socioeconomic development, sea-level rise, continental topography data, population data, and adaptation strategies.

29. High-precision timeline for Earth’s most severe extinction

Seth D. Burgess, Samuel Bowring, and Shu-zhong Shen

PNAS 2014 111 (9) 3316-3321; published ahead of print February 10, 2014,doi:10.1073/pnas.1317692111

They present a high-precision age model for the end-Permian mass extinction, which was the most severe loss of marine and terrestrial biota in the last 542 My, that allows exploration of the sequence of events at millennial to decamillenial timescales 252 Mya.

30. Observational determination of albedo decrease caused by vanishing Arctic sea ice

Kristina Pistone, Ian Eisenman, and V. Ramanathan

PNAS 2014 111 (9) 3322-3326; published ahead of print February 18, 2014,doi:10.1073/pnas.1318201111

They find that the Arctic planetary albedo has decreased from 0.52 to 0.48 between 1979 and 2011, corresponding to an additional 6.4 ± 0.9 W/m2 of solar energy input into the Arctic Ocean region since 1979. 

31. Bedrock composition regulates mountain ecosystems and landscape evolution

W. Jesse Hahm, Clifford S. Riebe, Claire E. Lukens, and Sayaka Araki

PNAS 2014 111 (9) 3338-3343; published ahead of print February 10, 2014,doi:10.1073/pnas.1315667111

32. Evaluating officially reported polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emissions in the Athabasca oil sands region with a multimedia fate model

Abha Parajulee and Frank Wania

PNAS 2014 111 (9) 3344-3349; published ahead of print February 3, 2014,doi:10.1073/pnas.1319780111

＜Nature Communications＞

33. Frictional velocity-weakening in landslides on Earth and on other planetary bodies

Antoine Lucas, Anne Mangeney, Jean Paul Ampuero

Nature Communications 5, Article number:3417 doi:10.1038/ncomms4417