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1. From the ashes of VEI: Decoding explosivity, mass eruption rate and hazards in real time

   https://doi.org/10.22541/essoar.176967627.71453176/v1  

   Sahagian, Dork (January 2026, AGU)

   Ash-producing volcanic eruptions are a major natural hazard. The explosivity of these eruptions has been described for decades by a semi-quantitative “Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI)” based on a number of interdependent factors (eruption duration, volume of ejected material, eruptive column height, tropospheric and stratospheric injection, and many qualitative descriptors), most of which could only be assessed after eruption had ceased. The utility of this semi-quantitative index has been questioned since then, yet its common usage persists. We suggest that if VEI is to be used in the future, it may as well be an index that can be determined in real time during an eruption, and one that strictly reflects eruption intensity. We find that the same value for the “traditional” Volcanic Explosivity Index of past eruptions can be estimated in real time during an eruption, based solely on eruption column height. This approach is not intended to replace the traditional VEI scale or supplant more detailed mechanistic approaches to mass eruption rate (MER); rather it can be used to provide a more immediate way of calculating the VEI and linking to MER, in real time while an eruption is taking place. As such, if the easily observed height can be measured, both MER and VEI can be estimated. This may facilitate emergency response by aviation, hazard management, and others to mitigate societal impact of hazardous eruptions. This scheme can be inverted to use volume-based VEI of ancient eruptions to roughly retrodict unobserved column height for key historic and pre-historic eruptions. Further, ash particle morphology reflects explosivity in terms of decompression rate at the vent of unobserved eruptions. With sufficiently rapid decompression, this could result in an observable bi-modal bubble size distribution. The morphology of ash particles reveals a threshold between VEI 3 and 4, above which there is sufficiently rapid decompression to trigger a second nucleation event near the vent. 

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2. Deciphering the variability of leaf phosphorus‐allocation strategies using leaf economic traits and reflectance spectroscopy across diverse forest types

   https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.70219  

   Dong, Tingting; Wu, Fengqi; Tsujii, Yuki; Townsend, Philip A; Yang, Nan; Xu, Weiying; Liu, Shuwen; Swenson, Nathan G; Lamour, Julien; Han, Wenxuan; et al (August 2025, New Phytologist)

   Summary Allocation of leaf phosphorus (P) among different functional fractions represents a crucial adaptive strategy for optimizing P use. However, it remains challenging to monitor the variability in leaf P fractions and, ultimately, to understand P‐use strategies across diverse plant communities.We explored relationships between five leaf P fractions (orthophosphate P, P_i; lipid P, P_L; nucleic acid P, P_N; metabolite P, P_M; and residual P, P_R) and 11 leaf economic traits of 58 woody species from three biomes in China, including temperate, subtropical and tropical forests. Then, we developed trait‐based models and spectral models for leaf P fractions and compared their predictive abilities.We found that plants exhibiting conservative strategies increased the proportions of P_Nand P_M, but decreased the proportions of P_iand P_L, thus enhancing photosynthetic P‐use efficiency, especially under P limitation. Spectral models outperformed trait‐based models in predicting cross‐site leaf P fractions, regardless of concentrations (R² = 0.50–0.88 vs 0.34–0.74) or proportions (R² = 0.43–0.70 vs 0.06–0.45).These findings enhance our understanding of leaf P‐allocation strategies and highlight reflectance spectroscopy as a promising alternative for characterizing large‐scale leaf P fractions and plant P‐use strategies, which could ultimately improve the physiological representation of the plant P cycle in land surface models. 

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3. The Genus Paronychia (Caryophyllaceae) in South America: Nomenclatural Review and Taxonomic Notes with the Description of a New Species from North Peru

   https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12051064  

   Iamonico, Duilio; Montesinos_Tubée, Daniel B (March 2023, Plants)

   All the names in Paronychia described from South America are investigated. Five names (P. arbuscula, P. brasiliana subsp. brasiliana var. pubescens, P. coquimbensis, P. hieronymi, and P. mandoniana) are lecto- or neotypified on specimens preserved at GOET, K, LP, and P. The typification of nine names, first proposed by Chaudhri in 1968 as the “holotype” are corrected according to Art. 9.10 of ICN. Three second-step typifications (Art. 9.17 of ICN) are proposed for P. camphorosmoides, P. communis, and P. hartwegiana. The following nomenclatural changes are proposed: P. arequipensis comb. et stat. nov. (basionym: P. microphylla subsp. microphylla var. arequepensis), P. compacta nom. nov. pro P. andina (Philippi non Gray; Art. 53.1 of ICN), P. jujuyensis comb. et stat. nov. (basionym: P. hieronymi subsp. hieronymi var. jujuyensis), P. compacta subsp. boliviana comb. nov. (basionym: P. andina subsp. boliviana), and P. compacta subsp. purpurea comb. nov. (basionym: P. andina subsp. purpurea). A new species (P. glabra sp. nov.) is proposed based on our examination of live plants and herbarium specimens. P. johnstonii subsp. johnstonii var. scabrida is synonymized (syn. nov.) with P. johnstonii. Finally, P. argyrocoma subsp. argyrocoma is excluded from South America since it was based on misidentified specimens (deposited at MO) of P. andina subsp. andina. A total of 30 species (43 taxa including subspecies, varieties, subvarieties, and forms) are recognized, highlighting that for some (Paronychia chilensis, P. communis, P. setigera) we provisionally accept Chaudhri’s infraspecific classification, since the high phenotypic variability of these taxa is quite complicated and further investigations need to solve their taxonomy. 

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4. Role of Phosphorus Type and Biodegradable Polymer on Phosphorus Fate and Efficacy in a Plant–Soil System

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.3c04735  

   Sigmon, Leslie R.; Vaidya, Shital R.; Thrasher, Corey; Mahad, Sumaya; Dimkpa, Christian O.; Elmer, Wade; White, Jason C.; Fairbrother, D. Howard (November 2023, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry)

   Phosphorus (P) is critical for crop production but has a high nutrient use inefficiency. Tomato was grown in soil amended with five P-sources, used as-is, or embedded within a biodegradable polymer, polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA). Correlation analysis identified treatments that maintain plant growth, improve bioavailable soil P, and reduce P loss. Three performance classes were identified: (i) micro- and nanohydroxyapatite, which did not increase bioavailable P, plant P-uptake, or change P in runoff/leaching compared to controls; (ii) monocalcium phosphate (MCP), dicalcium phosphate (DCP), calcium pyrophosphate nanoparticles (CAP), and PHA-MCP that increased P-uptake and/or bioavailable P but also increased P loss in runoff/leaching; and (iii) PHA-DCP and PHA-CAP, where increased bioavailable P and plant P-uptake were achieved with minimal P loss in runoff/leaching. In addition to identifying treatments that maintain plant growth, increase bioavailable P, and minimize nutrient loss, correlation plots also revealed that (i) bioavailable P was a good indicator of plant P-uptake; (ii) leached P could be predicted from water solubility; and (iii) P loss through runoff versus leaching showed similar trends. This study highlights that biopolymers can promote plant P-uptake and improve bioavailable soil P, with implications for mitigating the negative environmental impacts of P loss from agricultural systems. 

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5. Wire like diplatinum, triplatinum, and tetraplatinum complexes featuring X[PtCCCCCCCC] _m PtX segments; iterative syntheses and functionalization for measurements of single molecule properties

   https://doi.org/10.1039/C9DT00870E  

   Zheng, Qinglin; Schneider, Jakob F.; Amini, Hashem; Hampel, Frank; Gladysz, John A. (April 2019, Dalton Transactions)

   Reaction of ( p -tol 3 P) 2 PtCl 2 and Me 3 Sn(CC) 2 SiMe 3 (1 : 1/THF/reflux) gives monosubstituted trans -Cl( p -tol 3 P) 2 Pt(CC) 2 SiMe 3 (63%), which with wet n -Bu 4 N + F − yields trans -Cl( p -tol 3 P) 2 Pt(CC) 2 H ( 2 , 96%). Hay oxidative homocoupling (O 2 /CuCl/TMEDA) gives all- trans -Cl( p -tol 3 P) 2 Pt(CC) 4 Pt(P p -tol 3 ) 2 Cl ( 3 , 68%). Reaction of 3 and Me 3 Sn(CC) 2 SiMe 3 (1 : 1/rt) affords monosubstituted all- trans -Cl( p -tol 3 P) 2 Pt(CC) 4 Pt(P p -tol 3 ) 2 (CC) 2 SiMe 3 (46%), which is converted by a similar desilylation/homocoupling sequence to all- trans -Cl[( p -tol 3 P) 2 Pt(CC) 4 ] 3 Pt(P p -tol 3 ) 2 Cl ( 7 ; 79%). Reaction of ( p -tol 3 P) 2 PtCl 2 and excess H(CC) 2 SiMe 3 (HNEt 2 /cat. CuI) gives trans -Me 3 Si(CC) 2 Pt(P p -tol 3 ) 2 (CC) 2 SiMe 3 (78%), which with wet n -Bu 4 N + F − affords trans -H(CC) 2 Pt(P p -tol 3 ) 2 (CC) 2 H (96%). Hay oxidative cross coupling with 2 (1 : 4) gives all- trans -Cl[( p -tol 3 P) 2 Pt(CC) 4 ] 2 Pt(P p -tol 3 ) 2 Cl ( 10 , 36%) along with homocoupling product 3 (33%). Reaction of 3 and Me 3 Sn(CC) 2 SiMe 3 (1 : 2/rt) yields all- trans -Me 3 Si(CC) 2 ( p -tol 3 P) 2 Pt(CC) 4 Pt(P p -tol 3 ) 2 (CC) 2 SiMe 3 ( 17 , 77%), which with wet n -Bu 4 N + F − gives all- trans -H(CC) 2 ( p -tol 3 P) 2 Pt(CC) 4 Pt(P p -tol 3 ) 2 (CC) 2 H (96%). Reaction of 3 and excess Me 3 P gives all- trans -Cl(Me 3 P) 2 Pt(CC) 4 Pt(PMe 3 ) 2 Cl ( 4 , 86%). A model reaction of trans -( p -tol)( p -tol 3 P) 2 PtCl and KSAc yields trans -( p -tol)( p -tol 3 P) 2 PtSAc ( 12 , 75%). Similar reactions of 3 , 7 , 10 , and 4 give all- trans -AcS[(R 3 P) 2 Pt(CC) 4 ] n Pt(PR 3 ) 2 SAc (76–91%). The crystal structures of 3 , 17 , and 12 are determined. The first exhibits a chlorine–chlorine distance of 17.42 Å; those in 10 and 7 are estimated as 30.3 Å and 43.1 Å. 

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