Nature Geoscience contents: February 2015 Volume 8 Number 2 pp81-159

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TABLE OF CONTENTS February 2015 Volume 8, Issue 2 Editorial Correspondence News and Views Progress Article Letters Articles Addenda Subscribe   Facebook   RSS   Recommend to library   Twitter   Advertisement Geologist Stephen Sparks, who cracked the physics of volcanoes, wins 2015 Vetlesen Prize  Stephen Sparks, a volcanologist at the University of Bristol, will be awarded the $250,000 Vetlesen Prize in a ceremony at Columbia University in June. Sparks helped to bring volcanology into the modern era, and his insights have improved our understanding of volcanic hazards globally. Considered the Nobel Prize of the earth sciences, the Vetlesen Prize is jointly awarded by the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation and Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.   Advertisement Nature Communications is now fully open access All new submissions to Nature Communications, if accepted, will be published open access and an article processing charge will apply. For more information visit the website. Many research funders and institutions make funds available to pay open access APCs: please consult our open access funding page to check if your funder or institution has funding available. For advice on whether you are eligible for APC funding and help in approaching funders and institutions please contact us at openaccess@nature.com.   Editorial Top Our planet and us   p81 doi:10.1038/ngeo2366 Humans have altered their environment ever since they first appeared. Updates on three frameworks of thinking about the scale of twenty-first-century human influence on the Earth are invigorating the global change debate. Correspondence Top Artificial seismic acceleration   pp82 - 83 Karen R. Felzer, Morgan T. Page & Andrew J. Michael doi:10.1038/ngeo2358 See also: Correspondence by Bouchon & Marsan Reply to 'Artificial seismic acceleration'   p83 Michel Bouchon & David Marsan doi:10.1038/ngeo2359 See also: Correspondence by Felzer et al. News and Views Top Biogeochemistry: Old carbon mobilized   pp85 - 86 Chris Evans doi:10.1038/ngeo2334 Soil contains aged organic carbon that can be hundreds or thousands of years old. Human disturbance in small and large watersheds is mobilizing some of this fossil carbon from soils to aquatic systems. See also: Letter by Butman et al. Palaeoclimate: End of the African Humid Period   pp86 - 87 Peter B. de Menocal doi:10.1038/ngeo2355 The Sahara was more humid and habitable thousands of years ago. Reconstructions of North African hydroclimate show that the onset of aridity started in the north, with the monsoon rains weakening progressively later at lower latitudes. See also: Article by Shanahan et al. Climate science: Pacemakers of warming   pp87 - 89 Stefan Brönnimann doi:10.1038/ngeo2330 In the first decades of the twentieth century, the Earth warmed rapidly. A coral-based climate proxy record of westerly winds over the equatorial Pacific suggests that wind strength and warming rate were linked, as they are today. See also: Letter by Thompson et al. Martin Brasier: A journey in palaeobiology   p89 David Wacey doi:10.1038/ngeo2362 Archaean Earth: Alkaline lakes of old   p90 Alicia Newton doi:10.1038/ngeo2361 Geoscience JOBS of the week Research Leaders Heriot-Watt University More Science jobs from Geoscience EVENT SGEM 2015 GeoConference on WATER RESOURCES. Forest, Marine And Ocean Ecosystems 16.06.15 Alebena, Bulgaria More science events from Progress Article Top Storage and release of organic carbon from glaciers and ice sheets   pp91 - 96 Eran Hood, Tom J. Battin, Jason Fellman, Shad O'Neel & Robert G. M. Spencer doi:10.1038/ngeo2331 Glaciers and polar ice sheets store and release a small but important pool of organic carbon. The changing climate is making glaciers an increasingly important driver of carbon dynamics in aquatic ecosystems. Letters Top Reactive ammonia in the solar protoplanetary disk and the origin of Earth's nitrogen   pp97 - 101 Dennis Harries, Peter Hoppe & Falko Langenhorst doi:10.1038/ngeo2339 Earth's nitrogen isotopic composition has been linked to an unknown primordial reservoir. Macroscopic analyses of mineral inclusions in meteorites suggest that ices in the Sun's protoplanetary disk could be the source of Earth's nitrogen. Circulation response to warming shaped by radiative changes of clouds and water vapour   pp102 - 106 Aiko Voigt & Tiffany A. Shaw doi:10.1038/ngeo2345 The atmospheric circulation controls the regional expression of global climate change. An analysis of aquaplanet climate simulations suggests that the radiative effects of clouds and water vapour are key to the circulation response to global warming. Carbonate weathering as a driver of CO2 supersaturation in lakes   pp107 - 111 Rafael Marcé, Biel Obrador, Josep-Anton Morguí, Joan Lluís Riera, Pilar López et al. doi:10.1038/ngeo2341 Carbon dioxide emissions from lakes contribute to the continental carbon balance. Water chemistry analyses of reservoirs in Spain suggest that carbonate weathering causes CO2 supersaturation in lakes above a threshold alkalinity. Increased mobilization of aged carbon to rivers by human disturbance   pp112 - 116 David E. Butman, Henry F. Wilson, Rebecca T. Barnes, Marguerite A. Xenopoulos & Peter A. Raymond doi:10.1038/ngeo2322 Most dissolved organic carbon in rivers originates from young carbon in soils and vegetation. A global radiocarbon data set suggests that human disturbance is also introducing aged carbon to rivers and to active carbon cycling. See also: News and Views by Evans Early twentieth-century warming linked to tropical Pacific wind strength   pp117 - 121 Diane M. Thompson, Julia E. Cole, Glen T. Shen, Alexander W. Tudhope & Gerald A. Meehl doi:10.1038/ngeo2321 Global temperatures rose quickly between 1910 and 1940. A reconstruction based on corals suggests that the Pacific trade winds were weak during this period of rapid warming, but strengthened as warming slowed in the following decades. See also: News and Views by Bronnimann Long-term winter warming trend in the Siberian Arctic during the mid- to late Holocene   pp122 - 125 Hanno Meyer, Thomas Opel, Thomas Laepple, Alexander Yu Dereviagin, Kirstin Hoffmann et al. doi:10.1038/ngeo2349 Holocene temperature trends in the Arctic are unclear. An isotope record from ice wedges in Siberia suggests that winters have warmed since the mid-Holocene, whereas summer temperatures have cooled. Modulation of oxygen production in Archaean oceans by episodes of Fe(ii) toxicity   pp126 - 130 Elizabeth D. Swanner, Aleksandra M. Mloszewska, Olaf A. Cirpka, Ronny Schoenberg, Kurt O. Konhauser et al. doi:10.1038/ngeo2327 Earth's initial oxygenation took several hundred million years. Experiments and geochemical modelling suggest that early photosynthetic marine microbes may have been repeatedly stressed by Fe(ii) delivered by submarine volcanism. Accelerated extension of Tibet linked to the northward underthrusting of Indian crust   pp131 - 134 Richard Styron, Michael Taylor & Kurt Sundell doi:10.1038/ngeo2336 The Tibetan Plateau is extending. Numerical simulations suggest that regional-scale extension is caused by gravitational collapse of the plateau, whereas rapid extension in the south is caused by underthrusting of the Indian slab. Articles Top The remote impacts of climate feedbacks on regional climate predictability   pp135 - 139 Gerard H. Roe, Nicole Feldl, Kyle C. Armour, Yen-Ting Hwang & Dargan M. W. Frierson doi:10.1038/ngeo2346 The spatial pattern of climate change is uncertain. Analyses of a simple model suggest that uncertainty in tropical feedbacks induces a global response, but the impact of uncertainty in polar feedbacks tends to be limited to the region. The time-transgressive termination of the African Humid Period   pp140 - 144 Timothy M. Shanahan, Nicholas P. McKay, Konrad A. Hughen, Jonathan T. Overpeck, Bette Otto-Bliesner et al. doi:10.1038/ngeo2329 During the early to mid-Holocene, Africa was more humid than today. Precipitation reconstructions from across Africa suggest that the termination of humidity was spatially variable, moving towards progressively lower latitudes. See also: News and Views by de Menocal Complexity of the deep San Andreas Fault zone defined by cascading tremor   pp145 - 151 David R. Shelly doi:10.1038/ngeo2335 Seismic tremors can be used to distinguish plate boundaries. Analysis of tremors occurring deep beneath the San Andreas Fault may identify the boundary between the North American Plate and the preserved remnant of a subducted slab. Randomness of megathrust earthquakes implied by rapid stress recovery after the Japan earthquake   pp152 - 158 Thessa Tormann, Bogdan Enescu, Jochen Woessner & Stefan Wiemer doi:10.1038/ngeo2343 The 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake released stress within a subduction zone. Analysis of seismic data shows that stresses returned to pre-quake levels within a few years, implying that large quakes could occur more often than previously thought. Addenda Top Addendum: Small influence of solar variability on climate over the past millennium   p159 Andrew P. Schurer, Simon F. B. Tett and Gabriele C. Hegerl doi:10.1038/ngeo2342 See also: Letter by Schurer et al. Addendum: Robust Arctic sea-ice influence on the frequent Eurasian cold winters in past decades   p159 Masato Mori, Masahiro Watanabe, Hideo Shiogama, Jun Inoue and Masahide Kimoto doi:10.1038/ngeo2348 See also: Letter by Mori et al. Top Advertisement Nature Plants - Now launched  The first issue of Nature Plants has now published. Covering all aspects of plant science including genetics, cell and molecular biology, ecology, evolution, agriculture, biotechnology and economics. Explore the first issue - free access for a limited time.   Natureevents is a fully searchable, multi-disciplinary database designed to maximise exposure for events organisers. The contents of the Natureevents Directory are now live. The digital version is available here. Find the latest scientific conferences, courses, meetings and symposia on natureevents.com. 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