Earth and Planetary Sciences · Oceanography
A study links high-latitude North Atlantic phytoplankton blooms with wetter conditions and increased plant productivity across central Europe. Earth system model experiments suggest that chlorophyll helped drive this connection by absorbing sunlight, warming the sea surface and changing atmospheric circulation.
A data-driven analysis of the central and western Baltic Sea identified ecosystem risk hotspots where low oxygen near the seafloor, depth-related constraints and fishing pressure occurred together. These areas also had relatively high species abundance, according to analyses of 2020 data covering 145 marine species.
Agricultural lime is generally counted as a source of carbon dioxide, but a study of the Mississippi River Basin finds that it acted as a net carbon sink over the past century. River records indicate that about 90% of the lime’s ideal carbon-removal potential was realized, equivalent to approximately 0.44 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide.
Sediments and recent water samples show that Lago Verde underwent a major ecological shift during peak deforestation and erosion in the 1970s and 1980s. As forest cover partly recovered, disturbance-tolerant diatoms declined and some earlier planktonic species increased, but the lake has not fully returned to its former state.
A three-year sensor study in Romania’s Danube Delta found that intense metabolism in delta channels, combined with carbon dioxide-rich wetland discharge, doubled aquatic carbon dioxide emissions near the river mouth compared with an upstream station. Despite these emissions, the study estimates that carbon uptake across the wider landscape is likely five times larger than aquatic emissions.
Adding calcium oxide to Los Angeles Harbor water lowered particulate organic carbon and dissolved oxygen when alkalinity rose by about 1,000 micromoles per kilogram. Smaller alkalinity increases, and other tested additions, produced no statistically significant changes in calcium carbonate precipitation or organic carbon partitioning over four days.
