Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Biogeochemistry
Contour-crossing calculations quantify decadal changes in the pCO2 impacts of inorganic chemical weathering in the North American Arctic
Published: 2026-10-25
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Degradation of Arctic permafrost is altering biogeochemical dynamics by exposing previously frozen sediment to water, acids, and oxidants. While thaw-driven enhancement of carbonate and silicate mineral weathering results in drawdown of atmospheric carbon dioxide (pCO2), acting as a negative feedback on modern climate change, enhancement of sulfide mineral oxidation increases pCO2 and acts as a [...]
Soil Carbon Stocks and Radiocarbon Profiles in Three Agricultural Systems of California’s Central Valley
Published: 2026-10-21
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Soil Science
Carbon stocks alone do not describe the age composition of soil carbon. We examined how soil carbon stocks and bulk radiocarbon varied with depth among fields with contrasting management histories in California's Central Valley. We compared monoculture and polyculture annual vegetable fields, 20- and 60-year-old peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] orchards, and a bare field margin with 10- and [...]
Using Global Climate Models to Inform Multi-Driver Biological Ocean Experiments
Published: 2026-10-15
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Oceanography
This century, widespread shifts in temperature and CO2-driven acidification are projected for the surface ocean. Determining how ocean biota will respond to these changes requires scaling multiple drivers together because biological responses to one driver often depend on the conditions of the others. However, ocean temperature and carbonate chemistry vary across regions, seasons, and emissions [...]
Soil pore architecture regulates carbon persistence via anaerobic microsites
Published: 2026-09-30
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Soil Science
Enhancing soil organic carbon (SOC) persistence in agricultural soils is a promising lever for climate mitigation, but realizing this potential depends on management practices that reliably promote SOC stabilization. Physical protection of organic compounds within soil aggregates is widely invoked to explain carbon stabilization under no-till farming, yet the role of pore architecture in [...]
Light- and CO2-dependent carbon isotope fractionation in the β-cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002
Published: 2026-09-30
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences
Carbon isotope fractionation during photosynthetic carbon fixation by phytoplankton (εₚ) underpins proxies for reconstructing past atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. The interpretation of εₚ is commonly based on steady-state flux-balance models that link isotopic fractionation to the balance between cellular carbon demand and supply, with Rubisco carboxylation providing the primary fractionating [...]
Transient Events: A Rapid-Response, Multi-Platform Observing Strategy for Detecting and Understanding Abrupt Change in Aquatic Ecosystems
Published: 2026-09-25
Subjects: Biochemistry, Biodiversity, Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Marine Biology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Extremes, not average conditions, increasingly govern the state of aquatic ecosystems and the risks they carry for people. Events far outside normal variability can reshape ecosystem structure and function within hours to weeks, and both the observational record and climate projections indicate such extremes are growing more frequent, more intense, and longer lasting. Whether an extreme becomes a [...]
Leveraging Ocean Data and Models: Building the Data Infrastructure, Workforce, and Modeling Capacity to Synthesize Earth’s Ocean Observations
Published: 2026-09-25
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Atmospheric Sciences, Biogeochemistry, Climate, Computer Sciences, Databases and Information Systems, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Fresh Water Studies, Geology, Hydrology, Meteorology, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Oceanography, Other Earth Sciences, Other Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
NASA’s aquatic and marine research enterprise within the overarching NASA Biosphere Program is entering an era of unprecedented data abundance. MODIS and the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission already generate ocean color data at rates that strain legacy processing and archiving workflows, and forthcoming missions will add further volume and complexity. These satellite [...]
Carbon and the Elements of Life: Integrated Observing and Modeling of Marine Biological Carbon Cycles
Published: 2026-09-25
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Biodiversity, Biogeochemistry, Biology, Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The global ocean acts as a massive reservoir for carbon dioxide, establishing ocean biogeochemistry as a primary driver of global carbon distributions [1-3]. This dynamic system is mediated by living organisms that cycle carbon and other elements through the ocean interior and air-sea interface, and is already being altered by warming, acidification, deoxygenation, and shifting nutrient supply [...]
Phanerozoic atmosphere and ocean conditions estimated by a continuous climate and multi-box ocean model
Published: 2026-09-15
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Geochemistry, Other Earth Sciences
The Phanerozoic Eon has witnessed marked fluctuations in Earth’s climate and the concentrations of elements conducive to life. Understanding what has driven these changes to the Earth system over such a long timeframe has traditionally used ‘box models’ which split the Earth into a small number of chemical reservoirs, with many models utilising a single, combined ocean-atmosphere reservoir. This [...]
Investigation of Drivers and Sources of Potential Harmful Algal Blooms in Lake Anna, Virginia, 2023–24
Published: 2026-09-02
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
Algal blooms in freshwater reservoirs are an increasing concern because of the risk to aquatic ecosystem health, recreational use, and water quality. Among the taxa that comprise an algal bloom, cyanobacteria are of particular concern due to the potential to produce toxic compounds which can cause acute and chronic illness in humans if ingested through contaminated water or shellfish. When toxins [...]
Global temperature calibrations based on 3-hydroxy fatty acids in lacustrine settings
Published: 2026-08-22
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences
Lakes are important archives of palaeoclimate records on the continent and decoding them could improve the parameterization of climate models to better predict the future. However, the limited temperature proxies currently applicable in lake environments make high-resolution climate records scarce. 3-hydroxy fatty acids (3-OH FAs) are bacterial lipids which have recently been proposed as [...]
State-Dependent Biophysical Processes Prevented a Late Paleozoic Snowball Earth
Published: 2026-08-21
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Terrestrial vegetation modulates Earth’s climate through two distinct pathways—biogeochemically drawing down CO2 through enhanced organic carbon burial [1, 2] and silicate weathering [3, 4], and biophysically altering surface energy and water balances through potentially competing albedo and evapotranspiration changes [5, 6]. Although the biogeochemical pathway is widely invoked to explain the [...]
Predicting the reactivity of trawl-disturbed sediment carbon from measurable seabed properties
Published: 2026-08-16
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
Mobile bottom-contact fishing gear disturbs a large area of the continental shelf each year. How much carbon that releases depends on how fast the disturbed material is mineralised. Assessments represent that with a first-order rate constant, and because its value is unmeasured they sample it across five orders of magnitude, which makes it their dominant uncertainty. Here the constant is derived [...]
Mineral association drives divergent chemical trajectories of organic sulfur during dryland soil development
Published: 2026-08-15
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Soil Science
Sulfur (S) deficiency is becoming more widespread as atmospheric S deposition declines, increasing ecosystem reliance on mineralization of soil organic S as a source of plant-available sulfate. Yet how organic S chemistry evolves during soil development, and how this evolution is mediated by microbial processing and mineral association, remains poorly understood, particularly in drylands. Here, [...]
Moving fast without breaking things: The benefits of preprinting for CDR research
Published: 2026-08-05
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences
Advocates of preprinting usually focus on its benefits to individual researchers — more feedback, citations, and visibility. We argue its greater value is collective: preprinting improves scientific coordination, which the carbon dioxide removal field needs in order to move fast without sacrificing rigor.