Carbon cycle
hideThe carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth.
The carbon cycle is usually thought of as four major reservoirs of carbon interconnected by pathways of exchange. These reservoirs are:
The annual movements of carbon, the carbon exchanges between reservoirs, occur because of various chemical, physical, geological, and biological processes. The ocean contains the largest active pool of carbon near the surface of the Earth, but the deep ocean part of this pool does not rapidly exchange with the atmosphere.
The global carbon budget is the balance of the exchanges (incomes and losses) of carbon between the carbon reservoirs or between one specific loop (e.g., atmosphere ↔ biosphere) of the carbon cycle. An examination of the carbon budget of a pool or reservoir can provide information about whether the pool or reservoir is functioning as a source or sink for carbon dioxide.
For more information about Carbon cycle, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with carbon cycle
New NIST database on gas hydrates to aid energy and climate research
Oct 07, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
The National Institute of Standards and Technology has developed a free, online collection of data on the properties of gas hydrates, naturally occurring crystalline materials that are a potential energy resource and also ...
Google Earth Application Maps Carbon's Course
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 21, 2009 |
3.1 / 5 (15) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words, particularly when the picture is used to illustrate science. Technology is giving us better pictures every day, and one of them is helping ...
Methane gas likely spewing into the oceans through vents in sea floor (w/ Video)
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 02, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (10) |
8
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists worry that rising global temperatures accompanied by melting permafrost in arctic regions will initiate the release of underground methane into the atmosphere. Once released, that ...
Scientists say climate change mitigation strategies ignore carbon cycling processes of inland waters
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 01, 2009 |
1 / 5 (1) |
0
In the paper, The Boundless Carbon Cycle, published in the September issue of Nature Geoscience, scientists from the University of Vienna, Uppsala University in Sweden, University of Antwerp, and the U.S. based Stroud Water ...
ESA investigates new methods of mapping tropical forest from space
Aug 21, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
Tropical rainforests play a crucial role in Earth's carbon cycle by absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in biomass. However, mapping these carbon stocks from space poses a huge technical challenge. ...
Global warming: Our best guess is likely wrong
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jul 14, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (49) |
54
No one knows exactly how much Earth's climate will warm due to carbon emissions, but a new study this week suggests scientists' best predictions about global warming might be incorrect.
New isotope cluster could lead to better understanding of atmospheric carbon dioxide
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jul 14, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of researchers has discovered an unexpected concentration of a certain isotopic molecule in parts of the stratosphere that could have implications for understanding the carbon cycle ...
Plants Save the Earth from an Icy Doom (w/ Podcast)
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jul 01, 2009 |
3.8 / 5 (9) |
5
(PhysOrg.com) -- Fifty million years ago, the North and South Poles were ice-free and crocodiles roamed the Arctic. Since then, a long-term decrease in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has cooled the Earth. ...
Little-known marine decomposers attract the attention of genome sequencers
Jun 29, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
The Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute (JGI) announced today that they will sequence the genomes of four species of labyrinthulomycetes. These little-known marine species were selected for sequencing ...
Study of agricultural watersheds and carbon losses
Jun 19, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) losses from tile drains are an underquantified portion of the terrestrial carbon cycle. This is particularly important in the eastern corn belt where tile drainage dominates the agricultural ...
The rise of oxygen caused Earth's earliest ice age
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 07, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (20) |
6
(PhysOrg.com) -- Geologists may have uncovered the answer to an age-old question - an ice-age-old question, that is. It appears that Earth's earliest ice ages may have been due to the rise of oxygen in Earth's ...
Amazon carbon sink threatened by drought
Mar 05, 2009 |
3.4 / 5 (5) |
2
The Amazon is surprisingly sensitive to drought, according to new research conducted throughout the world's largest tropical forest. The 30-year study, published today in Science, provides the first solid evidence that d ...
Study finds hemlock trees dying rapidly, affecting forest carbon cycle
Feb 26, 2009 |
3 / 5 (1) |
0
New research by U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) scientists and partners suggests the hemlock woolly adelgid is killing hemlock trees faster than expected in the southern Appalachians and rapidly altering ...
NASA Mission to Help Unravel Key Carbon, Climate Mysteries
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jan 29, 2009 |
5 / 5 (2) |
4
(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's first spacecraft dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide is in final preparations for a Feb. 23 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Carbon dioxide is the leading ...
Fish guts explain marine carbon cycle mystery
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jan 15, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (9) |
1
Research published today reveals the major influence of fish on maintaining the delicate pH balance of our oceans, vital for the health of coral reefs and other marine life.
