ATMO 336 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Greenhouse Gas, Cloud Albedo, Carbon Sink
18 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
The carbon cycle, predictions of change, models and uncertainty. The recycling of elements among the various components of the earth system is key to the continued functioning of the earth as a living planet. Ecologists study ecosystems by tracking carbon exchanges through the system. Carbon is the most central and nearly all life on earth is based on carbon. Land plants take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere in order to grow, while animals put that carbon back into the atmosphere when they eat the plants. Carbon in the atmosphere, which is mostly in the form of carbon dioxide, is an important greenhouse gas. Without the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, surface temperatures would be too cold. The largest reservoir is the lithosphere, which includes buried material such as rocks and fossil fuels. A sink is a removal mechanism and takes carbon out of a reservoir. A source is a mechanism that adds carbon to a reservoir.
