Pelican Parts Forums - Carbon Cycle

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Global Carbon Cycle - Sources

Carbon can be released back into the system in many different ways:

1. Through the respiration performed by plants and animals.

2. Through the decay of animal and plant matter. Fungi and bacteria break down the carbon compounds in dead animals and plants and convert the carbon to carbon dioxide if oxygen is present, or methane if not. The melting permafrost is releasing large amounts of methane, which contributes to global warming at a rate 21 more times than carbon dioxide.

3. Through combustion of biomass which oxidizes the carbon it contains, producing carbon dioxide (as well as other things, like smoke). Burning fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum products, and natural gas releases millions of tonnes of carbon that has been stored in the geosphere for millions of years. Fires also consume biomass and organic matter to produce carbon dioxide (along with methane, carbon monoxide, smoke), and the vegetation that is killed but not consumed by the fire decomposes over time adding further carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Wildfires and forest fires are likely to increase as land masses dry out with higher rates of evaporation.

4. Production of cement. A component, lime, is produced by heating limestone, which produces a substantial amount of carbon dioxide, and impacting upon the global carbon cycle.

5. At the surface of the oceans where the water becomes warmer, dissolved carbon dioxide is released back into the atmosphere.

6. Volcanic eruptions and metamorphism are part of the global carbon cycle and release gases into the atmosphere. These gases include water vapour, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide. Find out how volcanic gases are measured here.