In week five of the new Of Schemes and Memes blog series, which features weekly interviews with the art team at Nature, Art Director Kelly Krause explains the decisions behind this week’s front cover image on Atomtronics.
In week four of the new Of Schemes and Memes blog series, which features weekly interviews with the art team at Nature, Art Director Kelly Krause explains the decisions behind this week’s front cover image on drought and the Amazonian forest.
Congratulations to Marcel Hoek who has won the #naturecovers competition to name the blog series and wins a year’s personal subscription to Nature.
Caption:
Sunrise with Brazil nut tree in Senador Guiomard, Acre, Brazil. Our understanding of the sensitivity of the terrestrial carbon budget to climate anomalies is based largely on modelling and small-scale ecosystem studies and remains uncertain. That means that although the fate of the vast amounts of carbon stored as Amazon rainforest biomass is crucial to future climate trends it is not clear whether the Amazon will remain a carbon sink or become a source — and a driver of climate change.
A new analysis of seasonal and annual carbon balances based on carbon dioxide and monoxide measurements for anomalously dry and wet years suggests that water availability has an important role in determining the carbon balance in the Amazon basin. During 2010, drought reduced plant production and limited the amount of carbon that could be stored in vegetation; at the same time large amounts of carbon were released by fire. The region was carbon neutral during the wet year, 2011, because of reduced carbon loss through fires and increased carbon uptake by vegetation. Cover: P&R Fotos/AGR Fotostock & robertharding.com
Sink Or Source?
From the Art Desk:
Art Director, Kelly Krause, explains:
“The decision to feature a striking photo of an Amazonian forest was an obvious one. The challenge was selecting just the right photo. Our amazing picture research team did an extensive search for images from the region examined by the researchers. Many of the photos showed a landscape of lush treetops, and those were tempting, but personally I found the idea of drought and fires in the Amazon to be more surprising (and was an essential point in the paper). I think most people expect a lush, wet photo of the Amazon, so we decided to show the opposite.
“A good cover photo should entice, enrich, or even surprise. It’s okay that it’s only telling half the story.”
For more on the story, listen to the latest podcast
For additional behind the scenes commentary each week, check out Nature Graphics Tumblr and last week’s cover uncovered on 100 years of Crystallography.
In week three of the new Of Schemes and Memes blog series, which features weekly interviews with the art team at Nature, Art Director Kelly Krause explains the decisions behind this week’s front cover illustration on Crystallography.
In week two of the new Of Schemes and Memes blog series, which features weekly interviews with the art team at Nature, Art Director Kelly Krause explains the decisions behind this week’s front cover graphic.
To launch this new series of posts, we are looking for a super witty and smart title for the weekly blog (puns allowed/encouraged.) Nature Publishing Group is offering the prize of a personal subscription to Nature for the best series title from our readers. Share your best entries with the hashtag #naturecovers on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or in the comments by Wednesday 29th January 2014.
Have you ever picked up a magazine and wondered what the inspiration behind the front cover has been? In this new weekly blog series on Of Schemes and Memes, the art team at Nature will explain the decisions made in selecting their iconic front cover images and graphics.
To launch the new series of posts, we are looking for a super witty and smart title for the weekly blog (puns allowed/encouraged.) Nature Publishing Group is offering the prize of a personal subscription to Nature for the best headline from our readers. Share your best entries with the hashtag #naturecovers on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or in the comments by Wednesday 29th January 2014 . Nature Publishing Group employees are also on a mission and love puns. We will choose a winner from our readers, but will choose the eventual headline from all the suggestions from our colleagues and readers.