The Gulf Stream transport of water through the Florida Straits has slowed by 4% over the past four decades, with 99% certainty that this weakening is more than expected from random chance, according to a new study.
Computers can be trained to improve detection of distant nuclear detonations, chemical blasts and volcano eruptions by learning from artificial explosion signals.
New research refining the amount of sunlight absorbed by black carbon in smoke from wildfires will help clear up a longtime weak spot in Earth system models, enabling more accurate forecasting of global climate change.
The activity of marine microorganisms depends on community composition, yet, in some oceans, little is known about the environmental and ecological processes that structure their distribution. The objective of this study was to test the effect of geographic distance and environmental parameters on prokaryotic community structure in the Southern Ocean (SO). We described the total (16S rRNA gene) and the active fraction (16S rRNA-based) of surface microbial communities over a ~6.500 km longitudinal transect in the SO. We found that the community composition of the total fraction was different from the active fraction across the zones investigated. In addition, higher α-diversity and stronger species turnover were displayed in the active community compared to the total community. Oceanospirillales, Alteromonadales, Rhodobacterales and Flavobacteriales dominated the composition of the bacterioplankton communities, however, there were marked differences at the order level. Temperature, sal