The Global Carbon Cycle Animation
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In the global carbon cycle, carbon is cycled through Earth's organisms, the soil, the atmosphere, and the oceans.
Most of Earth's carbon is found in fossil fuels and in carbon-containing minerals in rocks. In contrast, the atmosphere contains relatively little carbon, and it is in the form of CO2 and CH4. The quantities of carbon that are held in or exchanged annually by the ecosystem compartments are expressed in units of 1015 grams.
On land, most of the carbon available to organisms is stored in soils. During cellular respiration, soil organisms and other terrestrial biota release carbon in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere. The opposite happens during photosynthesis, when plants take CO2 from the atmosphere, indicated here as GPP, for gross primary production.
CO2 is also rapidly exchanged between the atmosphere and the surface waters of the oceans. The rate at which CO2 dissolves in the ocean slightly exceeds the rate at which it outgasses, for two reasons. First, some of the dissolved CO2 is converted into organic compounds by phytoplankton, such as diatoms. Most of this carbon is then recycled in surface and deeper waters through the trophic interactions of aquatic organisms, but gravity moves a steady rain of organic detritus into the benthic zone.
Second, some of the CO2 is transformed through chemical reactions with water and other dissolved elements into relatively insoluble carbonate compounds, especially calcium carbonate, which ultimately also sink to the bottom. When dissolved carbon dioxide is converted into other compounds, the ocean is more likely to take up additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Despite the fact that the ocean absorbs more CO2 that it releases, atmospheric CO2 measurements from on top of Mauna Loa, Hawaii, show an upward trend in CO2 concentrations over the decades, with a current high exceeding 380 parts per million. Before the Industrial Revolution, the concentration of atmospheric CO2 was probably about 265 parts per million.
The zigzag pattern reflects the seasons. During the Northern Hemisphere winter, metabolism exceeds photosynthesis, resulting in a net release of CO2 in the atmosphere. In the summer, photosynthesis exceeds metabolism, and relatively more CO2 is taken up by plants.
CO2 is considered a green house gas. It is transparent to visible light, which warms the surface of Earth. The warmed surface emits infrared radiation back toward space, but this wavelength is aborbed by CO2 and other greenhouse gases, which then heat up and re-emit infrared radiation, trapping the energy and heat at Earth's surface. Increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are implicated in global warming.
Human activities influence the carbon cycle in a number of ways. Deforestation, changes in land use, and the burning of fossil fuels increase the atmospheric pool of CO2. The carbon released from burning fossil fuels comes from plants that lived hundreds of millions of years ago, such as those in a carboniferous forest (which transformed into coal) and oceanic plankton (which transformed into petroleum and natural gas).
The atmospheric pool of CH4 is increased through livestock production, rice cultivation, and water storage in reservoirs, because microbes in the guts of cattle and in waterlogged sediments break down organic compounds anaerobically produce CH4. Although the atmospheric pool of CH4 is far smaller than that of CO2, both are potent greenhouse gases and affect Earth's radiation balance.
Life greatly influences the cycling of matter on Earth. Carbon, in particular, cycles in vast amounts through living organisms. In the form of CO2, carbon enters plants and other primary producers during photosynthesis. These organisms convert CO2 into organic compounds that the rest of life on Earth can take in. As carbon is incorporated into the body of an organism, or as it passes from one organism to another, it is chemically transformed until, finally, it is released back into the atmosphere in the form of CO2.
Recently, the carbon cycle has become out of balance. More carbon is now released into the atmosphere than is returned back to living organisms or to that vast carbon sink, the ocean. The primary culprit is humankind. We burn fossil fuels-organic carbon repositories that had long ago been removed from the carbon cycle-and thereby release large amounts of extra carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The sudden release of carbon dioxide has not been compensated by an equal removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. One consequence is that the excess atmospheric CO2 increases the atmosphere's heat-insulating capacity and contributes to global warming.
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