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Carbon Cycling over Lands and Oceans

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Global Climate

Abstract

Increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main driving force of climate change. We learned from ice core measurements that prior to the Industrial Revolution, 200 years ago, the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere was fairly stable, indicating some quasi-equilibrium state for the sum of all processes which controlled the atmospheric carbon content. Since then, growing industries have put a strong demand on energy, which was met by extracting fossil fuels from the earth’s crust and burning them in engines. Furthermore, the population increase from 0.6 to 6 billion has fostered the need for new lands for agriculture, and the extension of cropland and pastures has led to deforestation. Many forests have been cut or degraded, and today, about 80% of the terrestrial ecosystems are directly influenced by human activities. Land use and land use changes over the past 200 years have caused land ecosystems to lose carbon. Overall, in response to both land use changes and fossil fuel burning, the amount of CO2 in the air has risen from 280 ppm before the Industrial Revolution to the present 365 ppm. The magnitude of the ongoing rise in CO2 is comparable to changes which occurred in the distant past. More than 10 000 years ago, our planet warmed up by 5°C as extensive ice sheets covering North America and Scandinavia melted away. During that period, CO2 increased from 200 to 280 ppm. Yet this 80 ppm increase took place within 5000 years whereas human activities have fostered a comparable rise within only 200 years.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire des Sciences du Climate et l’Environement, LSCE (CNRS), Orme des Merisiers, Bât. 709, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, Cedex, France

    Philippe Ciais

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  1. Philippe Ciais
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  1. Climate ResearchGroup, University of Barcelona, Baldiri Reixac, 4-6, Torre D, 08032, Barcelona, Spain

    Xavier Rodó

  2. Instituto Pirenaico de Ecologia-CSIC, Avda. Montanana 1005, 50059, Zaragoza, Spain

    Francisco A. Comín

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Ciais, P. (2003). Carbon Cycling over Lands and Oceans. In: Rodó, X., Comín, F.A. (eds) Global Climate. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-05285-3_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-05285-3_7

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