Carbon- Cycle Flashcards
Keeling Curve
A graph representing concentrations of CO2 in earths atmosphere since 1958.
How much of warming is attributed to carbon concentration increase?
60%
Who was the first to note the correlation between CO2 increases and rising temperatures?
Arrgenius by measuring CO2 levels in atmosphere and comparing it to that of the ocean.
Eddy Covariance Technique
Measures exchange of GHG between earths surface and the atmosphere
Why is the Eddy Covariance Technique useful?
Allows to distinguish earth processes that are carbon sinks and carbon soruces.
What happens to CO2 when it enters the ocean?
Reacts with sea water forming carbonic acid(H3CO3), an inorganic acid.
What is the carbon composition of the ocean?
Carbonic acid is 1%, 90% Bicarbonate HCO3-, and 9% Carbonate Iones(C032-)
Why is increasing ocean CO2 seqeustration significaiton in acidification?
It increases ionic concentration of bicarbonate, decreasing pH by H+ increase.
What did Lashof identify in 1989?
Biogeochemical feedbacks
Where does uncertainity arise in climate models?
The unknown fate in warming worlds, and corresponding radiative forcing, for example.
What does the keeling curve exhibit?
Seasonal pulses of CO2 captured by terrestial biosphere, with gradual increase from year to year.
How much does CO2 ppm increase?
By 2ppm
Airborne Fraction
The fraction of anthropogenic CO2 emissions that remains in the atmosphere after natural processes have absorbed some of them.
What is the airborne fraction of CO2?
60%
How much do the ocean/terrestial sinks aborb?
About 25% each
What would projections of warming be without ocean/terrestial sinks?
Twice as fast, above 500ppm, 2k above PIL.
What factors contribute to decreases in carbon uptake over time by ocean/terrestrial?
Ocean stratification and reduced thermohaline circulation, and temperature
Ocean stratification
Distinct layers in vertical sea water colmns
CO2 fertilization effect
This causes increased photosynthesis rates whilst limiting leaf plant transpiration.
What does the evolution of atmospheric CO2 result from?
Balance between CO2 emissions and land/ocean carbon sinks.
Feedback Loop
The coupling of CO2-climate system dependence on climate change, and vice versa.
What do pertubations in CO2 sink rate of ocean/terrestrial land lead to?
Suppression/Amplifcation of climate change alteration.
How much of the 10 billion GtC remainin the atmosphere?
40%, 60% to land/oceans
Why do ocean/land negative feedbacks occur?
Strenghtening of partial pressure of CO2 gradients like buffering capacity.
