The Ocean Carbon Cycle And Climate

Our desire to understand the global carbon cycle and its link to the climate system represents a huge challenge. These overarching questions have driven a great deal of scientific endeavour in recent years: What are the basic oceanic mechanisms which control the oceanic carbon reservoirs and the partitioning of carbon between ocean and atmosphere? How do these mechanisms depend on the state of the climate system and how does the carbon cycle feed back on climate? What is the current rate at which fossil fuel carbon dioxide is absorbed by the oceans and how might this change in the future? To begin to answer these questions we must first understand the distribution of carbon in the ocean, its partitioning between different ocean reservoirs (the "solubility" and "biological" pumps of carbon), the mechanisms controlling these reservoirs, and the relationship of the significant physical and biological processes to the physical environment. The recent surveys from the JGOFS and WOCE (Joint Global Ocean Flux Study and World Ocean Circulation Ex periment) programs have given us a first truly global survey of the physical and biogeochemical properties of the ocean. These new, high quality data provide the opportunity to better quantify the present oceans reservoirs of carbon and the changes due to fossil fuel burning. In addition, diverse process studies and time-series observations have clearly revealed the complexity of interactions between nutrient cycles, ecosystems, the carbon-cycle and the physical envi ronment.

Our desire to understand the global carbon cycle and its link to the climate system represents a huge challenge. These overarching questions have driven a great deal of scientific endeavour in recent years: What are the basic oceanic mechanisms which control the oceanic carbon reservoirs and the partitioning of carbon between ocean and atmosphere? How do these mechanisms depend on the state of the climate system and how does the carbon cycle feed back on climate? What is the current rate at which fossil fuel carbon dioxide is absorbed by the oceans and how might this change in the future? To begin to answer these questions we must first understand the distribution of carbon in the ocean, its partitioning between different ocean reservoirs (the "solubility" and "biological" pumps of carbon), the mechanisms controlling these reservoirs, and the relationship of the significant physical and biological processes to the physical environment. The recent surveys from the JGOFS and WOCE (Joint Global Ocean Flux Study and World Ocean Circulation Ex periment) programs have given us a first truly global survey of the physical and biogeochemical properties of the ocean. These new, high quality data provide the opportunity to better quantify the present oceans reservoirs of carbon and the changes due to fossil fuel burning. In addition, diverse process studies and time-series observations have clearly revealed the complexity of interactions between nutrient cycles, ecosystems, the carbon-cycle and the physical envi ronment.

While a number of gases are implicated in global warming, carbon dioxide is the most important contributor, and in one sense the entire phenomena can be seen as a human-induced perturbation of the carbon cycle. The Global Carbon Cycle offers a scientific assessment of the state of current knowledge of the carbon cycle by the world's leading scientists sponsored by SCOPE and the Global Carbon Project, and other international partners. It gives an introductory over-view of the carbon cycle, with multidisciplinary contributions covering biological, physical, and social science aspects. Included are 29 chapters covering topics including: an assessment of carbon-climate-human interactions; a portfolio of carbon management options; spatial and temporal distribution of sources and sinks of carbon dioxide; socio-economic driving forces of emissions scenarios. Throughout, contributors emphasize that all parts of the carbon cycle are interrelated, and only by developing a framework that considers the full set of feedbacks will we be able to achieve a thorough understanding and develop effective management strategies. The Global Carbon Cycle edited by Christopher B. Field and Michael R. Raupach is part of the Rapid Assessment Publication series produced by the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), in an effort to quickly disseminate the collective knowledge of the world's leading experts on topics of pressing environmental concern.

The Global Carbon Cycle and Climate Change: Scaling Ecological Energetics from Organism to the Biosphere, Second Edition examines the global carbon cycle and energy balance of the biosphere, following carbon and energy through increasingly complex levels of metabolism—from cells to ecosystems. Utilizing scientific explanations, analyses of ecosystem functions, extensive references, and cutting-edge examples of energy flow in ecosystems, this is an essential resource to aid in understanding the scientific basis of the role of ecological systems in climate change. Includes new chapters on dynamic properties of the global carbon cycle, climate models and projections, and managing carbon in the global biogeochemical cycle. Addresses the scientific principles governing carbon fluxes at successive hierarchical levels of organization, from cells to the biosphere Illustrates - through data and diagrams - the complex processes by which carbon moves in the global biogeochemical cycle Provides new information on tipping points for climate change and why there are climate deniers

The carbon cycle in the Earth System constitutes a fundamental, pressing research topic in modern Earth system science. The greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) provide an important forcing factor of the global climate, which, on the other hand, controls the sources and sinks of these gases. In addition, the carbon cycle is currently being seriously perturbed by direct and indirect emissions from human activities. Unraveling and quantifying these interactions and feedbacks is essential to understand the climate history of the Earth, but also to predict its evolution in the future. The ocean is important to climate change and global warming-as a storer and transporter of heat and carbon-but our understanding of the operative processes is inadequate to make predictions with the required skill. CO2 increases will lead to the increased carbon storage by the land and ocean. Climate change will reduce the land and ocean's capacity to absorb atmospheric CO2 due to the increasing temperatures of both the land and ocean and increasing oceanic stratification. The ocean, which has absorbed 27.9% of the anthropogenic CO2 in the past 200 years, plays a crucial role in the global carbon cycle. Climate Change and the Oceanic Carbon Cycle provides complete understanding of the variables and consequences of oceanic carbon cycling in the context of climate change. It reviews the ocean's role in the global CO2 cycle and climate change; describe the importance of mesoscale processes in the ocean; examine the main pathways of carbon exchange between the ocean surface layer and the ocean interior; analyze the scales of the physical processes involved in nutrient limitation of the "biological pump"; and review the implications for climate change. The contributed chapters explores the importance of marine plankton in carbon processing as well as the effects of rising CO2 and temperature in their functioning.

Marine geochemistry uses chemical elements and their isotopes to study how the ocean works in terms of ocean circulation, chemical composition, biological activity and atmospheric CO2 regulation. This rapidly growing field is at a crossroad for many disciplines (physical, chemical and biological oceanography, geology, climatology, ecology, etc.). It provides important quantitative answers to questions such as: What is the deep ocean mixing rate? How much atmospheric CO2 is pumped by the ocean? How fast are pollutants removed from the ocean? How do ecosystems react to anthropogenic pressure? This text gives a simple introduction to the concepts, the methods and the applications of marine geochemistry with a particular emphasis on isotopic tracers. Overall introducing a very large number of topics (physical oceanography, ocean chemistry, isotopes, gas exchange, modelling, biogeochemical cycles), with a balance of didactic and indepth information, it provides an outline and a complete course in marine geochemistry. Throughout, the book uses a hands-on approach with worked out exercises and problems (with answers provided at the end of the book), to help the students work through the concepts presented. A broad scale approach is take including ocean physics, marine biology, ocean-climate relations, remote sensing, pollutions and ecology, so that the reader acquires a global perspective of the ocean. It also includes new topics arising from ongoing research programs. This textbook is essential reading for students, scholars, researchers and other professionals.

A must-have introduction to this fundamental driver of the climate system The Global Carbon Cycle is a short introduction to this essential geochemical driver of the Earth's climate system, written by one of the world's leading climate-science experts. In this one-of-a-kind primer, David Archer engages readers in clear and simple terms about the many ways the global carbon cycle is woven into our climate system. He begins with a concise overview of the subject, and then looks at the carbon cycle on three different time scales, describing how the cycle interacts with climate in very distinct ways in each. On million-year time scales, feedbacks in the carbon cycle stabilize Earth's climate and oxygen concentrations. Archer explains how on hundred-thousand-year glacial/interglacial time scales, the carbon cycle in the ocean amplifies climate change, and how, on the human time scale of decades, the carbon cycle has been dampening climate change by absorbing fossil-fuel carbon dioxide into the oceans and land biosphere. A central question of the book is whether the carbon cycle could once again act to amplify climate change in centuries to come, for example through melting permafrost peatlands and methane hydrates. The Global Carbon Cycle features a glossary of terms, suggestions for further reading, and explanations of equations, as well as a forward-looking discussion of open questions about the global carbon cycle.

Oceans account for 50% of the anthropogenic CO2 released into the atmosphere. During the past 15 years an international programme, the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), has been studying the ocean carbon cycle to quantify and model the biological and physical processes whereby CO2 is pumped from the ocean's surface to the depths of the ocean, where it can remain for hundreds of years. This project is one of the largest multi-disciplinary studies of the oceans ever carried out and this book synthesises the results. It covers all aspects of the topic ranging from air-sea exchange with CO2, the role of physical mixing, the uptake of CO2 by marine algae, the fluxes of carbon and nitrogen through the marine food chain to the subsequent export of carbon to the depths of the ocean. Special emphasis is laid on predicting future climatic change.