Caroline Slomp

So happy to share that my friend Francien Peterse has won the prestigious John Hayes Award.🎉 More than deserved👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻.

geochemsoc.org/news/francie...

Meer dan mooie woorden: de universiteit heeft een strategie nodig met radicaal vertrouwen en een biologisch fundament - Vox magazine OPINIE - De nieuwe strategie van de Radboud Universiteit ontvouwt zich als een gedurfde visie die de traditionele bescheidenheid van zich afschudt, schrijft hoogleraar microbiologie Mike Jetten. Maar ...

OPINIE - De nieuwe strategie van RU is een gedurfde visie die de bescheidenheid van zich afschudt, schrijft Mike Jetten : 'we kunnen het ons niet veroorloven een generatie briljante talenten te verliezen omdat ze te uitgeput zijn door bureaucratie & gebrek aan budgetten www.voxweb.nl/opinie/meer-...

Anaerobic methane oxidation by ANME-2a at two molar chloride in Orca Basin https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.09.704686v1

Opinie | Hoe een mini-kabinet het hoger onderwijs sloopt Dit demissionair kabinet voert ingrijpende onderwijsbezuinigingen door, zonder benodigd mandaat. Dat moet stoppen, zeggen Rens Bod, Remco Breuker en Ingrid Robeyns.

"Het is een democratische absurditeit die we ondertussen bijna normaal zijn gaan vinden: een demissionaire regering die nauwelijks een zesde van de Tweede Kamer vertegenwoordigt, maar die wel doorgaat met beslissingen die diep ingrijpen in de toekomst van ons land. [..]"

www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...

Contrasting greenhouse gas dynamics along a coastal‐to‐oligotrophic ocean continuum The oceans play the dual role of carbon sinks and greenhouse gases (GHGs) sources in global climate change, but there are still gaps in understanding the GHG fluxes and regulation mechanisms across e...

Contrasting greenhouse gas dynamics along a coastal‐to‐oligotrophic ocean continuum aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #jcampubs 🌊

Microbial oxidation significantly reduces methane export from global groundwaters www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1... #jcampubs

Cell size matters: a unifying theory across the tree of life Cell size shapes how organisms interact with their environment, yet our understanding of these effects remains fragmented. We synthesise these effects into a Theory of Optimal Cell Size (TOCS), predic...

Cell size matters: a unifying theory across the tree of life www.cell.com/trends/ecolo... #jcampubs

A niche for diverse cable bacteria in continental margin sediments overlain by oxygen-deficient waters Abstract. Since the discovery of cable bacteria more than a decade ago, these multicellular, filamentous sulfur-oxidizing bacteria have been found in a range of sedimentary environments. However, thei...

A niche for diverse cable bacteria in continental margin sediments overlain by oxygen-deficient waters bg.copernicus.org/articles/22/... #jcampubs 🌊

Microbial iron oxide respiration coupled to sulfide oxidation - Nature Genomic and biochemical analyses of prokaryotic sulfur metabolism identify diverse microorganisms with the capacity to oxidize sulfide using iron(iii).

📢 New paper in @nature.com

Microbes rock 🎸🤘 with sulfide and iron minerals

I am very excited to share our recent study, which describes a previously unknown microbial energy metabolism ⚡⚡⚡🦠🧫⚡⚡⚡

🆕 Microbial iron oxide respiration coupled to sulfide oxidation - MISO

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Witnessing the rapid and extensive thawing of permafrost in Svalbard is truly impressive but deeply concerning

Coastal methane emissions driven by aerotolerant methanogens using seaweed and seagrass metabolites - Nature Geoscience Experiments suggest aerotolerant archaea produce methane in the surface layers of coastal sandy sediments and that this activity is driven by seaweed and seagrass metabolites.

Check this nice first first-author paper by Ning Hall—now out in Nature Geoscience! Our team had a blast supporting Ning on the isolation workflow, and a few of the standout Methanococcoides strains even trace back to our Danish waters. 🌊
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hearing state officials talk about how unexpected these floods were & it’s infuriating.

This was completely predictable to anyone even vaguely aware of the climate crisis.

Same thing with LA fires. The Mayor cut the fire fighting budget as global temps soared.

Climate ignorance = needless deaths

To the non-expert, this will seem esoteric, so allow me to summarise: we have profoundly altered the distribution of nutient elements on the ocean, with a potentially profound impact on the life that lives in it.

What helps the climate is not automatically good for the ocean | Radboud University Methods to enhance the ocean’s uptake of carbon dioxide (CO₂) are being explored to help tackle the climate crisis. However, some of these approaches could significantly exacerbate ocean deoxygenation...

One might expect that climate mitigation measures would help to counteract oxygen decline in the oceans. Yet a new study reveals that many proposed marine carbon dioxide removal methods could in fact intensify oxygen loss. 😕 🌊 Read more:
www.ru.nl/en/research/...
with @carolineslomp.bsky.social

Pieces of fossilized Bryozoan sea mats, like fine lace netting.
Despite their delicate appearance, they have managed to survive intact in these rock layers for over 300 million years.
County Donegal, Ireland.

Why I returned the Faraday prize to the Royal Society Andrea Sella explains how inaction over Elon Musk's membership motivated him to act

Now I've had a chance to read Andrea Sella's article in @chemistryworld.com on why he returned his Royal Society Faraday Medal. I recommend that you read it too. It's inspiring, though inevitably also disturbing, in these troubled times.
www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/why-...

Horrortrip nach New York: Schweizerin wird an der US-Grenze trotz gültiger Papiere abgewiesen und inhaftiert Eine 38-jährige Schweizer Staatsbürgerin wollte ihren Geburtstag in New York feiern – stattdessen wurden ihre E-Mails und Social-Media-Accounts durchsucht und sie 24 Stunden lang inhaftiert.

Ohne Worte

www.tagesanzeiger.ch/deportatione...

Drivers of the extreme North Atlantic marine heatwave during 2023 - Nature Atmospheric reanalyses combined with ocean observations and model simulations show that the extreme 2023 North Atlantic heatwave was primarily driven by anomalously weak winds leading to strongly shoa...

Our study just out in Nature: the extreme North Atlantic heat in summer 2023 was mainly due to weak winds causing shallow mixed layers, which heat up more quickly.
Global warming is causing a trend toward shallow mixed layers, making such extremes more likely.
🌊
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Schematics of atmospheric CH4 cycling on (a) modern Earth, (b) Archean Earth, and (c) Titan. (a) On modern Earth (20% O2), CH4 emissions originate primarily from wetlands, ruminants, and the fossil fuel industry. Methane is oxidized chemically in the troposphere by hydroxyl radicals (OH), with an average lifetime of 10 years. Hydroxyl radicals originate from reactions between ozone (O3), UV radiation (<320 nm), and H2O vapor. The O3 layer originates from reactions between UV radiation and O2. (b) On the Archean Earth (<0.0001% O2), in the absence of O3 and O2, CH4 would have had a much longer atmospheric lifetime (∼10,000 years), with eventual destruction by UV photolysis, leading to H escape and/or, when CH4/CO2 was greater than 0.1, polymerization to yield organic haze in the upper atmosphere. (c) On Titan, with temperatures near the CH4 triple point, there is a CH4 cycle of evaporation, photolysis to yield ethane (C2H6) and H2 (lost to space), and condensation of C2H6, whereupon it participates in surface processes.

Review of methane through space and time, coauthored with @planetdr.bsky.social, is out (OA) in @annualreviews.bsky.social.

Hopefully a helpful resource for community and courses. www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

The Case for the Anthropocene Epoch Is Stronger Than the Case for the Holocene Epoch From a purely geological perspective, the scientific case for the Anthropocene as a geological epoch is stronger than that for the Holocene If the logic to reject the Anthropocene as an epoch wer...

📢 New paper from @bolincentre.bsky.social: "The Case for the Anthropocene Epoch Is Stronger Than the Case for the Holocene Epoch"
The onset of the unofficial #Anthropocene is more constraint than other used official epochs incl. the Holocene. 🧪 agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

#FossilFriday Elrathia kingii. Trilobites from the Cambrian from the fantastic fossil collection at @ribesresearch.bsky.social We used them this week in a new Geobiology course @Radboud University, Nijmegen.

It's worth reading this @thebulletin.org article about preserving the Keeling Curve.

Go deeper: Many scientists have trumpeted the scientific—& even cultural—value of long-standing datasets like this, even suggesting that some deserve World Heritage status to protect them.

eos.org/opinions/tak...

Werkveld luidt noodklok op actiedag tegen verdwijnen aardwetenschappen VU Het werkveld waarin de VU-aardwetenschappers vaak komen te werken waarschuwt dat de gevolgen van de voorgenomen bezuiniging niet te overzien zijn.

Steun aan collega's en studenten van de VU die Aardwetenschappen proberen te redden

@vuamsterdam.bsky.social @woinactie.bsky.social

🌊 Artificial oxygen supply in coastal waters: A hope with risks

Researchers warn: Technical measures are no substitute for reducing nutrients and protecting the climate

🔗 www.geomar.de/en/news/arti...

Could Bubbling Oxygen Revitalize Dying Coastal Seas? - Eos Reoxygenation approaches have shown some success in lakes, but their potential risks must be examined carefully before they’re implemented as solutions to improve the health of coastal waters.

Approaches to artificial reoxygenation have been studied as possible solutions to coastal oxygen loss, but they come with risks that must be assessed carefully, write @carolineslomp.bsky.social @ribesresearch.bsky.social & @aoschlies.bsky.social @geomarkiel.bsky.social

eos.org/features/cou...

Geotweeps - a great walkthrough of 500 million years of fossils in Newfoundland and Labrador by Dr. Rod Taylor. @geologyjohnson.bsky.social @geology.bsky.social @callanbentley.bsky.social @morethanadodo.bsky.social

Een klap in het gezicht van alle recent ontslagen onderzoekers.

Screenshot of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2025 website showing the session details for "Session US2 – Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal: Fostering Earth Science Forces for Combating Global Warming." The session is scheduled for Friday, May 2, 2025, from 14:00 to 15:40 CEST in Room E1. It is chaired by Giulia Faucher, Carolin Löscher, and Gerhard Herndl. The program includes a 5-minute introduction, speaker presentations, a discussion on marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR), and audience questions. Featured speakers are Louis Legendre (France), Daria Atamanchuk (Canada), and David Ho (USA). The session is hybrid with Zoom access. 🌊

I'm on an mCDR panel at #EGU25, but I just learned that our convener Carolin Löscher from Denmark won't be there.

She's been diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer whose expensive treatment is only available in the US and UAE.

Please consider helping: www.gofundme.com/f/help-for-m...

Register here 👉 bit.ly/43Itbza for the next #GO2NE webinar on 🌊 #ocean #deoxygenation, 28 April, 10:30 – 11:30 CEST

Moderation from Véronique Garçon.
Welcoming speakers Yuntao Zhou and Lijing Cheng. Topics below!

@aoschlies.bsky.social @carolineslomp.bsky.social
@kisensee.bsky.social

SaltAges - WG3: Earth system modelling using cGENIE Register by 20th April 2025 here

COST Action SaltAGES WG3 is organising a hands-on, free online training course on Earth System Modelling using cGENIE. Applications can be submitted at: sites.google.com/view/saltage...