Over the course of six years (2006–2011), equivalent black carbon (eqBC), coarse aerosol mass (PM 1–10), and surface ozone (O 3), observed during the monsoon onset period at the Nepal Climate Observatory–Pyramid WMO/GAW Global Station (NCO-P, 5079 m a.s.l.), were analyzed to investigate events characterized by a significant increase in these short-lived climate forcers/pollutants (SLCF/P).

Traffic noise has been associated with prevalence of hypertension, but reports are inconsistent for blood pressure (BP). People’s noise exposure indoors might be essential to ascertain effects and disentangle them from those suspected for traffic-related air pollution.

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) that also depletes stratospheric ozone. Nitrogen (N) fertilizer rate is the best single predictor of N2O emissions from agricultural soils, which are responsible for ∼50% of the total global anthropogenic flux, but it is a relatively imprecise estimator. Accumulating evidence suggests that the emission response to increasing N input is exponential rather than linear, as assumed by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change methodologies. The researchers performed a metaanalysis to test the generalizability of this pattern.

This paper addresses a longstanding debate regarding the factors that limit nitrogen fixation by diazotrophic plankton—the primary source of an essential nutrient to the ocean. Multiple lines of evidence show that diazotroph growth can be locally limited by the atmospheric iron supply, but large-scale rates of N2 fixation are ultimately controlled by N deficits generated within the ocean. These findings can reconcile the conflicting observations of biologists and geochemists, while implying a new sensitivity of the marine N cycle to anthropogenic climate warming.

5921–5941One seventh of the world's population lives in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) and the fertile region sustains agricultural food crop production for much of South Asia, yet it remains one the most under-studied regions of the world in terms of atmospheric composition and chemistry. In particular, the emissions and chemistry of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that form surface ozone and secondary organic aerosol through photochemical reactions involving nitrogen oxides are not well understood.