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the greenhouse effect
GHG
GHG
GHG
Incoming solar
energy
(shortwave)
Slide from Andrea Fassbender
GHGs interact w/
outgoing energy
(longwave)
Some energy is
absorbed and reemitted
►
Sunlight heats the earth surface
►
The Earth surface emits heat to the
atmosphere
►
Greenhouse gases absorb outgoing,
infrared energy and re-emit that energy
in all directions
►
The Earth surface warms more than if
there were no GHGs in the atmosphere
the long term carbon cycle
2) Continental weathering of
silicate and carbonate rocks
1) Volcanism
3) Deep sea burial of calcium carbonate
(CaCO3) and organic carbon
4) Tectonic plate subduction 3
long term steady state
Mount St. Helens
Carbon released to the
active carbon reservoir
via volcanism.
Inflow = Outflow
Cliffs of Dover
Robert Krimmel, USGS
chalk =
CaCO3!
Active
Carbon
Reservoir
Carbon returned to the
inactive carbon reservoir
via carbon burial and plate
tectonics.
Credit: ©between ca. 1890 and ca. 1900 Detroit Publishing
Company. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[reproduction number LC-DIG-ppmsc-08355]
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the “active” and “inactive” carbon reservoirs
• So far we’ve talked about the long term carbon cycle. Cycling of carbon through
geologic reservoirs occurs over million year timescales. These reservoirs are
referred to as inactive carbon reservoirs because they interact with the atmosphere
over geologic time scales rather than short time scales.
• There are many processes involving carbon that take place on much faster time
scales; from seconds to hundreds of years. This includes carbon cycling through
land plants and surface soils (the terrestrial biosphere) and through the surface
ocean. These faster time scale processes earn these reservoirs the name of active
carbon reservoirs.
Active carbon reservoir: any reservoir/pool of carbon that interacts with the
atmosphere on timescales less than hundreds of years.
• land plants and soils
• ocean
• atmosphere
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active carbon cycle (preindustrial)
Pg = Gt = billion tons or 1015 grams
6
slide from Christopher Sabine
the human influence
Carbon released to the
active carbon reservoir
via volcanism.
Inflow ≠ Outflow
Active
Carbon
Reservoir
Carbon returned to the
inactive carbon reservoir
via carbon burial and plate
tectonics.
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carbon units
Current global fossil fuel emissions are
equivalent to ~9-10 Pg C per year.
Petagram Carbon (Pg C) =
Gigaton Carbon (Gt C) =
1 billion tons of carbon
Alex Zolotar
Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette
a train filled with 1 Gt coal would wrap
around the earth 4 times
a train filled with 9 Gt coal would wrap
around the earth 36 times!
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the Keeling curve
http://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu/
the Keeling curve vs. glacial/interglacial CO2
Human CO2
emissions
natural glacial-interglacial cycles
http://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu/
~first Homo sapien fossil
CO2 Partitioning (PgC y-1)
atmospheric CO2 growth
10
8
Total CO2 emissions
Where is
the missing
carbon?
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4
2
Atmosphere
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
Time (y)
Updated from Le Quéré et al. 2009
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partitioning of carbon (2002-2011 avg.)
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active carbon cycle (preindustrial + avg. fluxes 2000-2009)
Pg = Gt = billion tons or 1015 grams
13
slide from Christopher Sabine
cumulative contributions to Global Carbon Budget
Slide from the Global Carbon Project
sea-air CO2 fluxes
ΔpCO2 = pCO2 (sea) – pCO2 (air)
CO2
out
CO2 in
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