GEOG 410 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Keeling Curve, Carbon Cycle, Shortwave Radio

• School: UBC
• Department: Geography
• Course: GEOG 410
• Professor: K A R E N A B K K E R

Document Summary

A short history of co2: carbon dioxide (co2) is the most common gaseous form of carbon, most of the earth"s (cid:272)ar(cid:271)o(cid:374) is lo(cid:272)ated i(cid:374) ro(cid:272)ks i(cid:374) the (cid:272)rust. When humans extract and burn these sediments, the carbon is released into the atmosphere at a much faster rate than they are naturally returned to the crust. The changing co2 content of the atmosphere: two billion years ago there was much more co2 and much less oxygen than there is today, but cyanobacteria altered the composition of the atmosphere. It shows an overall increasing trend that reflects increasing emissions of co2 over time, as well as annual fluctuations related to northern hemisphere seasonal shifts. As the trees grow leaves, they sequester carbon in order to produce energy to grow. The carbon is released when they die: proxy measurements from tree rings, sediment cores, ice cores, and corals can be used to reconstruct climate conditions prior to our ability to measure them directly.