The intense, efficient transfer of organic carbon from the surface to the deep Southern Ocean make it a key component of the global carbon cycle. Observations show that this process isn’t always driven by sinking diatom skeletons, which often don’t make it past the mid-depth twilight zone, challenging the understanding of how climate change may impact the region.

Microbial activity in marine sediment acts as a barrier that generally prevents methane from escaping. However, a survey from the Baltic Sea suggests that in many locations the microbial population falters and methane can pass through freely.

The biological carbon pump exports about 7.36 Pg of carbon globally per year from the upper ocean, according to an estimation of the dissolved oxygen budget that accounts for air–sea exchange, advection, and diffusion.

Satellite data and field observations show that global annual-scale vegetation indices are sensitive to the daily frequency and intensity of rainfall, independent of the total amount of rainfall per year.

Soil models include a key parameter known as carbon use efficiency, which impacts estimates of global carbon storage by determining the flow of carbon into soil pools versus the atmosphere. Microbial-explicit versions of these models are due for an update that recasts carbon use efficiency as an output variable emerging from microbial metabolism.

The intense, efficient transfer of organic carbon from the surface to the deep Southern Ocean make it a key component of the global carbon cycle. Observations show that this process isn’t always driven by sinking diatom skeletons, which often don’t make it past the mid-depth twilight zone, challenging the understanding of how climate change may impact the region.

Madeleine Lewis explains how a needle and peristaltic pump system can be used to isolate supraglacial meltwater.

Nature Geoscience spoke with Susanne M. Straub, an igneous geochemist at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory; Susan Q. Lang, a chemical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; and Yige Zhang, a palaeoceanographer at the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, about science supported by deep ocean drilling and the impact of the recent decommissioning the JOIDES Resolution drilling vessel run by the International Ocean Discovery Program.

Microbial activity in marine sediment acts as a barrier that generally prevents methane from escaping. However, a survey from the Baltic Sea suggests that in many locations the microbial population falters and methane can pass through freely.

Meriel Bittner explains how solid phase extraction can be used to concentrate B-vitamins for quantification in aquatic systems.