Subglacial environments are largely anoxic, contain organic carbon ( OC ) overridden by glacier ice during periods of advance, and harbour active microbial communities. This creates favourable conditions for OC degradation via methanogenesis. It has been hypothesized that OC beneath ice sheets is converted to methane ( CH 4 ) and may be released to the atmosphere during retreat. However, there are limited data available to sup...

Aim Modern biodiversity peaks in the tropics and declines poleward, a pattern that is potentially driven by climate. Although this latitudinal biodiversity gradient (LBG) also characterizes the marine invertebrate fossil record, distributions of ancient terrestrial faunas are poorly understood. This study utilizes data on the dinosaur fossil record to examine spatial patterns in terrestrial biodiversity throughout the Mesozoic...

Tissue turnover is a critical facet of plant life history variation. This study quantifies losses from setbacks to growth of terminal woody shoots 1.2 m long, across 83 species and seven sites in eastern Australia. Setbacks, where the leading meristem had been removed or died and a new leader had emerged, were common (median three per shoot). Shoots had lost an average of 0.25 m of lead‐stem length for 1.2 m net shoot‐length g...

We present a calibrated atmospheric humidity series for Armagh Observatory, Northern Ireland. Beginning in 1838 and continuing to the present day, this series is believed to be the longest presented so far. Daily wet‐bulb and dry‐bulb temperature readings are corrected for the time of reading and for known instrumental errors to determine mean monthly, seasonal and annual relative humidity (RH) at 09:00 GMT from 1838 to 2008 a...