AGU Advances
A cross-disciplinary, gold open-access journal publishing full length, high-impact research articles across all of the Earth and space sciences. Submit your research.
Volume 5 Issue 4 | September 2024
EDITORIAL | RESEARCH ARTICLES | EDITORS’ PICKS FROM OTHER JOURNALS | FEATURED SPECIAL COLLECTIONFROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF
I hope everyone will read the editorial in this issue about the challenges facing scientific publishing. Authors, editors and peer reviewers are adapting to a decades-long shift in the criteria used to judge scientific merit that can emphasize metrics over insight and quantity over quality. As the editorial points out, this has increased the number of "least publishable unit" papers and fostered “the unrealistic expectation that every research effort must culminate in a groundbreaking scientific discovery”. I have listened with dismay to assistant professors, postdocs, and even PhD students, who assume they must publish in specific high-impact journals in order to get a job or tenure, when what should matter is whether the published work reflects an original contribution that advances science by answering an important question. Journals are important because of the quality of their peer review, and AGU journals set very high standards. So if we are to outsource decisions about who gets the job or who gets promoted based on where their work is published rather than what is in the paper, I would argue for the reputation of AGU (and other non-profile, society-managed) venues. Authors have many tools to increase the visibility and impact of their work, and editors can highlight especially interesting work as we do for all papers published in AGU Advances. So next time you think about where to send your best work, I hope you will consider our journals, and next time you are in the position to hire or promote, please read the papers! —Susan Trumbore, Editor in Chief
EDITORIAL
Publishing is Stressful: What Can We Do About It?
AGU’s editors address how rapidly evolving expectations, the culture of metrics, and the expansion of for-profit journals stress authors, reviewers and editors – and how to change this dynamic. AGU Editorial Network
RESEARCH ARTICLES
The Delicate Balance of Permafrost in Arctic River Floodplains
To evaluate the vulnerability of permafrost in Arctic floodplain landscapes to warming, Douglas et al. explore dynamics of its loss and reformation. Douglas et al.
Carbon-Water Tradeoffs in Old-Growth and Young Forests of the Pacific Northwest
Farinacci et al. document how spruce forests differing in management and age structure influence individual tree growth, C stocks and landscape water balance in the Pacific northwest. Farinacci et al.
Crustal Melts at the Core-Mantle Boundary
Seismic waves get sent in all directions for deep mantle anomalies, and a new analysis shows where those scatters lie and what properties they have. Thorne et al.
New Method Reveals Hidden Structures in Clear-Sky Vertical Motion
High-resolution satellite data reveal unexpected, highly heterogeneous vertical motions in the clear-sky atmosphere, with a new method proposed for measuring these motions. Poujol et al.
How Mantle Hydration Changes over the Lifetime of a Subduction Zone
Water released from subducting oceanic plates influences the formation of volcanoes and earthquakes on Earth’s surface. A new study simulates how slab dehydration and mantle hydration levels change over time. Epstein et al.
Rocks from Mars’ Jezero Crater, which likely predate life on Earth, contain signs of water
The presence of organic matter is inconclusive, but the rocks could be scientists’ best chance at finding remnants of ancient Martian life. Bosak and Shuster et al.
Buffering by Ammonia Sustains Sulfate Aerosol Production
A new method for evaluating the role of multiphase buffering and acidification reactions on aerosol pH finds that the buffering effect sustains sulfate production from high pH-favored multiphase reactions. Zheng et al.
Amazonian Drought May Have Long-Lasting Effects on Carbon Cycle
Dry conditions stemming from the 2015–2016 El Niño caused significant carbon loss, raising concerns that water supply and demand issues could turn the Amazon from a carbon sink to a carbon source. Liu et al.
Imaging Below the Surface Reveals One of Los Angeles’s Webs of Faults
Damage zones extend to either side of many faults and can affect how future earthquakes behave. Alongi et al.
Using Satellite Data to Estimate Atmospheric CO2 Growth Rates
A new method improves growth rate estimates of carbon dioxide increase in the atmosphere by combining the standard NOAA approach with satellite data. Pandey et al.
When a Plateau Suppresses a Plume: Disappearance of the Samoan Plume Under the Ontong Java Plateau
Volcanism at Malaita Island provides a missing link for the Samoan hotspot and new insights into plateau-plume interactions. Jackson et al.
Sea Spray Aerosol Over the Remote Oceans Has Low Organic Content
Fresh sea spray particles over the remote oceans contain little organic matter, implying that biological cycles may not control the properties of these climate-relevant particles. Lawler et al.
EDITORS’ PICKS FROM OTHER JOURNALS
Machine Learning Masters Weather Prediction
Machine learning approaches to weather prediction have quickly matched, and may soon surpass, results from traditional models. Now, Rasp et al. (2024) have described an evaluation framework and training data that enable testing and new research for more accurate prediction. —Hannah Christensen, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
As the River Flows the Colors Sparkle
On the Kansas River, Bruns et al. (2024) use satellite imagery to connect river color and flow, demonstrating new methods for evaluating river health. —Marguerite A. Xenopoulos, JGR: Biogeosciences
New Moonquakes from Old Data
Almost 50 years after they were turned off, the Apollo seismometers still have secrets to reveal. Ondera (2024) use data from a newly-released archive to describe new seismic events, revealing new insight into the origin of seismic activity. —Laurent G. J. Montési, JGR: Planets
Featured AGU Special Collection
Io and the Galilean Satellites
The Juno spacecraft close flybys of Io in 2023 and 2024, as well as close and distant flybys of Ganymede, Europa, between 2021 and 2024. The data collected during these flybys provided unprecedented views of these Jovian moons. Juno’s multi-instrument measurements include high-resolution imagery in visible, ultraviolet, and infrared of the surface geology and composition, microwave subsurface sounding, electromagnetic sounding of the sub-surface conductive layers, gravitational sounding of the interior, as well as the characterization of the electromagnetic fields and particles environment of these moons. This special collection welcomes papers on the observations and models related to Juno’s flybys of Europa, Ganymede and Io, focusing on the surface composition and geology, ice shell thermal structure, ocean dynamics, the structure and dynamics of deeper layers as well as atmospheric and space environment studies. Ground and space telescope observations related to the Juno flybys of Io and the Jovian moons and modeling work are equally welcome.
To submit your manuscript, use the submission site for Geophysical Research Letters, JGR: Planets, JGR: Space Physics, and select the collection’s title from the dropdown menu in the Special Section field of the submission form.
