| 51. |
- Sigmundsson, F., et al.
(författare)
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Segmented lateral dyke growth in a rifting event at Bardarbunga volcanic system, Iceland
- 2015
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 517:7533
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Crust at many divergent plate boundaries forms primarily by the injection of vertical sheet-like dykes, some tens of kilometres long(1). Previous models of rifting events indicate either lateral dyke growth away from a feeding source, with propagation rates decreasing as the dyke lengthens(2-4), or magma flowing vertically into dykes from an underlying source(5,6), with the role of topography on the evolution of lateral dykes not clear. Here we show how a recent segmented dyke intrusion in the Bardarbunga volcanic system grew laterally for more than 45 kilometres at a variable rate, with topography influencing the direction of propagation. Barriers at the ends of each segment were overcome by the build-up of pressure in the dyke end; then a new segment formed and dyke lengthening temporarily peaked. The dyke evolution, which occurred primarily over 14 days, was revealed by propagating seismicity, ground deformation mapped by Global Positioning System(GPS), interferometric analysis of satellite radar images (InSAR), and graben formation. The strike of the dyke segments varies from an initially radial direction away from the Bardarbunga caldera, towards alignment with that expected from regional stress at the distal end. A model minimizing the combined strain and gravitational potential energy explains the propagation path. Dyke opening and seismicity focused at the most distal segment at any given time, and were simultaneous with magma source deflation and slow collapse at the Bardarbunga caldera, accompanied by a series of magnitude M > 5 earthquakes. Dyke growth was slowed down by an effusive fissure eruption near the end of the dyke. Lateral dyke growth with segment barrier breaking by pressure build-up in the dyke distal end explains how focused upwelling of magma under central volcanoes is effectively redistributed over long distances to create new upper crust at divergent plate boundaries.
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| 52. |
- Spang, Anja, et al.
(författare)
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Complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes
- 2015
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 521:7551, s. 173-179
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The origin of the eukaryotic cell remains one of the most contentious puzzles in modern biology. Recent studies have provided support for the emergence of the eukaryotic host cell from within the archaeal domain of life, but the identity and nature of the putative archaeal ancestor remain a subject of debate. Here we describe the discovery of 'Lokiarchaeota', a novel candidate archaeal phylum, which forms a monophyletic group with eukaryotes in phylogenomic analyses, and whose genomes encode an expanded repertoire of eukaryotic signature proteins that are suggestive of sophisticated membrane remodelling capabilities. Our results provide strong support for hypotheses in which the eukaryotic host evolved from a bona fide archaeon, and demonstrate that many components that underpin eukaryote-specific features were already present in that ancestor. This provided the host with a rich genomic 'starter-kit' to support the increase in the cellular and genomic complexity that is characteristic of eukaryotes.
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| 53. |
- Sterner, Thomas, 1952
(författare)
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Higher costs of climate change
- 2015
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Ingår i: Nature. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 527, s. 177-178
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 54. |
- Stuart-Smith, Rick D., et al.
(författare)
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Thermal biases and vulnerability to warming in the world's marine fauna
- 2015
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 528:7580, s. 88-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A critical assumption underlying projections of biodiversity change associated with global warming is that ecological communities comprise balanced mixes of warm-affinity and cool-affinity species which, on average, approximate local environmental temperatures. Nevertheless, here we find that most shallow water marine species occupy broad thermal distributions that are aggregated in either temperate or tropical realms. These distributional trends result in ocean-scale spatial thermal biases, where communities are dominated by species with warmer or cooler affinity than local environmental temperatures. We use community-level thermal deviations from local temperatures as a form of sensitivity to warming, and combine these with projected ocean warming data to predict warming-related loss of species from present-day communities over the next century. Large changes in local species composition appear likely, and proximity to thermal limits, as inferred from present-day species' distributional ranges, outweighs spatial variation in warming rates in contributing to predicted rates of local species loss.
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| 55. |
- Su, Jun, et al.
(författare)
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Expression of barley SUSIBA2 transcription factor yields high-starch low-methane rice
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 523, s. 602-606
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Atmospheric methane is the second most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, and is responsible for about 20% of the global warming effect since pre-industrial times(1,2). Rice paddies are the largest anthropogenic methane source and produce 7-17% of atmospheric methane(2,3). Warm waterlogged soil and exuded nutrients from rice roots provide ideal conditions for methanogenesis in paddies with annual methane emissions of 25-100-million tonnes(3,4). This scenario will be exacerbated by an expansion in rice cultivation needed to meet the escalating demand for food in the coming decades(4). There is an urgent need to establish sustainable technologies for increasing rice production while reducing methane fluxes from rice paddies. However, ongoing efforts for methane mitigation in rice paddies are mainly based on farming practices and measures that are difficult to implement(5). Despite proposed strategies to increase rice productivity and reduce methane emissions(4,6), no high-starch low-methane-emission rice has been developed. Here we show that the addition of a single transcription factor gene, barley SUSIBA2 (refs 7, 8), conferred a shift of carbon flux to SUSIBA2 rice, favouring the allocation of photo-synthates to aboveground biomass over allocation to roots. The altered allocation resulted in an increased biomass and starch content in the seeds and stems, and suppressed methanogenesis, possibly through a reduction in root exudates. Three-year field trials in China demonstrated that the cultivation of SUSIBA2 rice was associated with a significant reduction in methane emissions and a decrease in rhizospheric methanogen levels. SUSIBA2 rice offers a sustainable means of providing increased starch content for food production while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from rice cultivation. Approaches to increase rice productivity and reduce methane emissions as seen in SUSIBA2 rice may be particularly beneficial in a future climate with rising temperatures resulting in increased methane emissions from paddies(9,10).
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| 56. |
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| 57. |
- Vihinen, Mauno
(författare)
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No more hidden solutions in bioinformatics.
- 2015
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 521:7552, s. 261-261
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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| 58. |
- Vincent, Jean-Baptiste, et al.
(författare)
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Large heterogeneities in comet 67P as revealed by active pits from sinkhole collapse
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 523:7558, s. 63-66
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Pits have been observed on many cometary nuclei mapped by spacecraft(1-4). It has been argued that cometary pits are a signature of endogenic activity, rather than impact craters such as those on planetary and asteroid surfaces. Impact experiments(5,6) andmodels(7,8) cannot reproduce the shapes of most of the observed cometary pits, and the predicted collision rates imply that few of the pits are related to impacts(8,9). Alternative mechanisms like explosive activity(10) have been suggested, but the driving process remains unknown. Here we report that pits on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko are active, and probably created by a sinkhole process, possibly accompanied by outbursts. We argue that after formation, pits expand slowly in diameter, owing to sublimation-driven retreat of the walls. Therefore, pits characterize how eroded the surface is: a fresh cometary surface will have a ragged structure with many pits, while an evolved surface will look smoother. The size and spatial distribution of pits imply that large heterogeneities exist in the physical, structural or compositional properties of the first few hundred metres below the current nucleus surface.
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| 59. |
- Wagner, Gernot, et al.
(författare)
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Energy policy: Push Renewables to spur carbon pricing
- 2015
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 525:7567, s. 27-29
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Putting a price on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to curb emissions must be the centrepiece of any comprehensive climate-change policy. We know it works: pricing carbon creates broad incentives to cut emissions. Yet the current price of carbon remains much too low relative to the hidden environmental, health and societal costs of burning a tonne of coal or a barrel of oil1. The global average price is below zero, once half a trillion dollars of fossil-fuel subsidies are factored in.
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| 60. |
- Watson, D., et al.
(författare)
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A dusty, normal galaxy in the epoch of reionization
- 2015
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 519:7543, s. 327-330
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Candidates for the modest galaxies that formed most of the stars in the early Universe, at redshifts z> 7, have been found in large numbers with extremely deep restframe-ultraviolet imaging. But it has proved difficult for existing spectrographs to characterize them using their ultraviolet light. The detailed properties of these galaxies could be measured from dust and cool gas emission at far-infrared wavelengths if the galaxies have become sufficiently enriched in dust and metals. So far, however, the most distant galaxy discovered via its ultraviolet emission and subsequently detected in dust emission is only at z = 3.2, and recent results have cast doubt on whether dust and molecules can be found in typical galaxies at z >= 7. Here we report thermal dust emission from an archetypal early Universe star-forming galaxy, A1689-zDI. We detect its stellar continuum in spectroscopy and determine its redshift to be z = 7.5 +/- 0.2 from a spectroscopic detection of the Lyman-a break. A1689-zD1 is representative of the star-forming population during the epoch of reionization, with a total star-formation rate of about 12 solar masses per year. The galaxy is highly evolved: it has a large stellar mass and is heavily enriched in dust, with a dust-to-gas ratio close to that of the Milky Way. Dusty, evolved galaxies are thus present among the fainter star-forming population at z> 7.
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