In this paper, small-scale cyclonic eddies in the western South China Sea were observed during the upwelling season of the year. These small-scale eddies propagated eastward at the speed of 12cm/s. They transported the high level of phytoplankton away from the coastal area. The generation of the small-scale eddies may be associated with the relative movement between the mesoscale anticyclonic eddy and the offshore current.

The major findings of this article are the following. 1. Atmospheric CO2 observations alone are not sufficient to estimate the spatial distribution of carbon sources and sinks over North America, even though it is one of the most densely observed regions in the world. 2. To improve atmospheric inversion, lateral carbon transfer in agricultural products should be considered in the prior flux used to constrain the inversion.

This paper demonstrates a novel analytical method for recovering global fields noontime near-surface net available energy (the sum of the sensible and latent heat flux) and ground heat flux using day-night land surface temperature and net radiation combining AIRS and MODIS optical, thermal and atmospheric data. This method could potentially overcome the stumbling blocks associated with the empirical parameterisations for determining the ground heat flux in global evapotranspiration modelling.

The coupling of carbon cycle and nitrogen cycle drives food web structure and biogeochemistry of an ecosystem. However, across precipitation gradients, we have found examples of consistent N pool sizes above- and belowground and a shift to a greater proportion of belowground N in drier sites. We suggest that precipitation gradients do potentially decouple the C and N pool, but the exact nature of the decoupling depends on the dominant species’ capacity for intraspecific variation.

Our observational study looks at the structure of the eastern tropical North Atlantic (ETNA) oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) in comparison with the less-ventilated, eastern tropical South Pacific OMZ. We quantify the OMZ’s oxygen budget composed of consumption, advection, lateral and vertical mixing. Substantial oxygen variability is observed on interannual to multidecadal timescales. The deoxygenation of the ETNA OMZ during the last decades represents a substantial imbalance of the oxygen budget.

How will aging forests behave as they undergo ecological transitions? Can our models, which support scientific, policy, and management analyses, accurately simulate these transitions? We tested whether three forest ecosystem models could reproduce dynamics observed in an experimentally manipulated forest in northern Michigan, USA. None of the models fully captured the post-disturbance C fluxes observed, raising doubts about their ability to simulate tree death after moderate disturbances.

Environmental stresses can have large impacts on the emissions of volatile organic compounds from plants, affecting both the amount and the composition of emissions. In this work we demonstrate the variety of responses among five coniferous trees species to one stress-simulated herbivory. The observed responses would lead to significant changes to the atmospheric chemistry in forested regions, highlighting the continued need for improved understanding of biosphere-atmosphere relationships.

Land surface albedo is a key parameter to derive Earth’s surface energy balance. Any changes in the albedo have repercussions in the amount of energy that is retained by the Earth. Fire modifies albedo because it removes vegetation from the land surface; therefore, investigating these changes on a global scale can help to understand the role of fire within the Earth system.

We exposed a natural reef community to climate change scenarios to measure the impact of climate stress on the balance between reef calcification and dissolution. Calcification had a non-linear response to climate stress, while dissolution had a linear response, highlighting the need to study both processes. We also found a tipping point: communities switched from net calcification to net dissolution at temperature and pCO2 values that are likely to occur by the end of the century.