Quote: "The carbon cycle is that part of the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of Earth."
The natural process by which carbon is cycled through the Earth's atmosphere, oceans, and land. This process is integral to regulating the planet's carbon balance and mitigating the impact of greenhouse gas emissions.
Overview of the Carbon Cycle: An overview that explains how carbon moves through the environment, including the atmosphere, soils, oceans, and living organisms.
Greenhouse Gases: The role played by carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases in trapping heat close to the Earth's surface and increasing the planet's temperature.
Sources and Sinks of Carbon: The sources and sinks of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases, including the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and land-use changes.
Climate Change: The link between the carbon cycle and climate change, including the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions, global warming, and the impacts on the environment and society.
Anthropogenic Carbon: The role played by human activities in the increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and the rising global temperatures.
The Keeling Curve: A graph displaying the increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations measured regularly over the past sixty years at the Mauna Loa observatory.
Carbon Footprint: How individual carbon footprints contribute to climate change and the steps to reduce the carbon footprint.
Carbon Sequestration: The process of capturing and storing carbon dioxide (CO2) to reduce the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere.
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS): The technology that captures CO2 emissions from industrial processes and stores them underground.
Renewable Energy Sources: The alternative sources of energy that reduce carbon emissions compared to fossil fuels, such as solar, wind, and hydropower.
Carbon Credits: The system of carbon trading that assigns value to carbon emissions and enables individuals or companies to offset their emissions by investing in green projects.
Paris Agreement: An international accord aimed at reducing carbon emissions and limiting global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius.
Carbon Budget: The amount of CO2 that can be released during a specific period while limiting global temperature rise to a safe level.
Ocean Acidification: The phenomenon that occurs when the ocean absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere resulting in a decrease in pH levels, which can harm marine life.
Deforestation: The permanent removal of forests that contributes to the loss of carbon sinks resulting in greater atmospheric CO2 concentrations.
Natural Carbon Cycle: This represents the carbon movement between plants, animals, soil, and the atmosphere naturally. It involves the process of photosynthesis, respiration, decomposition, and consumption.
Anthropogenic Carbon Cycle: This cycle represents the process by which humans alter or modify the carbon cycle through activities such as burning of fossil fuels, land-use change, and deforestation.
Terrestrial Carbon Cycle: This cycle is restricted to the Earth's surface, specifically land areas. It involves the transfer of carbon between the atmosphere, soils, and vegetation.
Oceanic Carbon Cycle: This cycle focuses on carbon transfer in the ocean, mainly between the atmosphere and the surface layer of the ocean. It involves a complex system of physical, chemical, and biological processes.
Microbial Carbon Cycle: This cycle involves the transfer of carbon between microorganisms in the soil or other environments. It is an important part of the natural carbon cycle as it regulates the decomposition of organic matter.
Sedimentary Carbon Cycle: This cycle takes place on geological timescales and involves the transfer of carbon between the different layers of the Earth’s crust, including rocks, minerals, and sediments.
Atmospheric Carbon Cycle: This cycle describes the exchange of carbon between the Earth's atmosphere and other carbon pools, such as the ocean and land. It plays a crucial role in regulating climate change.
Biogeochemical Carbon Cycle: This cycle represents the interplay between biological, geological, and chemical processes that influence the distribution of carbon in the environment. It involves the processes of photosynthesis, respiration, decomposition, and weathering.
Global Carbon Cycle: This cycle describes the movement of carbon between all the major carbon pools on Earth, including the atmosphere, oceans, soils, and vegetation. It is the most comprehensive carbon cycle, regulating the global climate and influencing the Earth's ecosystems.
Quote: "Other major biogeochemical cycles include the nitrogen cycle and the water cycle."
Quote: "Carbon is the main component of biological compounds as well as a major component of many minerals such as limestone."
Quote: "The carbon cycle comprises a sequence of events that are key to making Earth capable of sustaining life."
Quote: "It describes the movement of carbon as it is recycled and reused throughout the biosphere, as well as long-term processes of carbon sequestration (storage) to and release from carbon sinks."
Quote: "To describe the dynamics of the carbon cycle, a distinction can be made between the fast and slow carbon cycle."
Quote: "Fast carbon cycles can complete within years... Slow or geological cycles can take millions of years to complete."
Quote: "Human activities have disturbed the fast carbon cycle for many centuries by modifying land use, and moreover with the recent industrial-scale mining of fossil carbon."
Quote: "Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere had increased nearly 52% over pre-industrial levels by 2020."
Quote: "Forcing greater atmospheric and Earth surface heating by the Sun... fundamentally altering marine chemistry."
Quote: "The majority of fossil carbon has been extracted over just the past half century."
Quote: "Rates continue to rise rapidly, contributing to human-caused climate change."
Quote: "The increased carbon dioxide has also caused a reduction in the ocean's pH value."
Quote: "Modifying land use and industrial-scale mining of fossil carbon."
Quote: "Forcing greater atmospheric and Earth surface heating... fundamentally altering marine chemistry."
Quote: "Carbon sequestration (storage) to and release from carbon sinks."
Quote: "Moving substances through the Earth's crust between rocks, soil, ocean, and atmosphere."
Quote: "Moving substances from atmosphere to biosphere, then back to the atmosphere."
Quote: "Can take millions of years to complete."
Quote: "Coal, petroleum, and gas extraction, and cement manufacture."