Carbon is an essential element to all living things on earth – plants and animals, surface and marine. It also plays a major role in regulating global climate, particularly temperature and in determining the acidity of rain, rivers and oceans.
See Also
Coastal Blue CarbonCarbon cycles, like water cycles, should be thought of as a system. There are inputs, stores, fluxes/flows and outputs that transfer carbon from one environment to another and cause stores to be depleted, or accumulate.
Carbon stores (reservoirs): location
The main stores of carbon are located in, and transferred between the:
- atmosphere: mainly as carbon dioxide CO2 but also shorter-lived methane CH4
- biosphere: all living organisms are composed of carbon occupying various environments
- cryosphere: the frozen ground of tundra and arctic regions containing plant material
- pedosphere: soil contains much organic carbon and the remains of dead plants & animals
- lithosphere: many of the rocks of the earth’s crust contain carbon, such as chalk/limestone (calcium carbonate)
- hydrosphere: the oceans contain much dissolved CO2 as well as marine
Carbon stores: magnitude
