The continuous movement of carbon between the atmosphere, the ocean, living organisms and rock and soil reservoirs, primarily as carbon dioxide, methane and organic compounds. Photosynthetic organisms draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and fix it into sugars; respiration, decomposition and combustion return it; the ocean absorbs and releases carbon dioxide at its surface and stores far more in dissolved form in the deep water; and, over millions of years, some carbon is buried and locked into rock and, eventually, fossil fuels. Forests hold a large share of the land's actively cycling carbon in living wood: a single mature giant sequoia, among the most massive living trees on Earth, can store carbon equivalent to many ordinary trees combined, which is why old-growth forest loss and forest fire both register as measurable disturbances to the global carbon budget rather than only a local one.
Facts
PeriodicityContinuous, operating on overlapping timescales at once: a fast biological exchange turning carbon over in years to decades, and a slow geological cycle, through rock weathering and burial, spanning hundreds of thousands of years. 1 ScalePlanetary, linking the atmosphere, ocean, living organisms and rock and soil reservoirs. 1 First DescribedAntoine Lavoisier's late 18th century work on combustion and respiration showed that both processes exchange the same element, carbon, laying the chemical groundwork later generations built the full cycle concept on. 1 Connections
Associated With
Source Carbon Cycle (Wikipedia)
Source Photosynthesis (Wikipedia)
Source Carbon Cycle (Wikipedia)
Demonstrated By
Whether the Amazon basin is currently a net carbon sink or, in its most deforested and fire-affected eastern reaches, has turned into a net carbon source is an active and genuinely unsettled research question; this edge records the rainforest as a demonstration of the carbon cycle's mechanism, not a claim about its current net direction.
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
The waterlogged, slow decomposing peat of muskeg locks away large stores of carbon, making these boreal bogs a significant part of the northern carbon cycle.
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Demonstrates
Source Tundra: Arctic (Wikipedia)
Source Blue Carbon (Wikipedia)
Source Wetland (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Carbon Cycle (Wikipedia)
Lead section
The carbon cycle is a part of the biogeochemical cycle where carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of Earth.
Types of dynamic section, fast cycle sentence
The fast or biological cycle can complete within years, moving carbon from atmosphere to biosphere, then back to the atmosphere.
Types of dynamic section, slow cycle sentence
The slow or geological cycle may extend deep into the mantle and can take millions of years to complete, moving carbon through the Earth's crust between rocks, soil, ocean and atmosphere.
Ocean section, first sentence
The ocean contains the largest active pool of carbon near the surface of the Earth.
Human influence on fast carbon cycle section, fossil fuel sentence
The largest and one of the fastest growing human impacts on the carbon cycle and biosphere is the extraction and burning of fossil fuels.
Terrestrial biosphere section, autotrophs sentence
Autotrophs extract it from the air in the form of carbon dioxide, converting it to organic carbon, while heterotrophs receive carbon by consuming other organisms.
Associated With: Nitrogen Cycle, Lead section, nitrogen cycle mention
Other major biogeochemical cycles include the nitrogen cycle and the water cycle.
Associated With: Water Cycle, Lead section, water cycle mention
Other major biogeochemical cycles include the nitrogen cycle and the water cycle.
View the SourceThe Carbon Cycle (NASA Earth Observatory)
Opening paragraph, first sentence
Carbon is the backbone of life on Earth.
Opening paragraph, reservoir exchange sentence
Carbon flows between each reservoir in an exchange called the carbon cycle, which has slow and fast components.
View the SourcePhotosynthesis (Wikipedia)
Associated With: Photosynthesis, Lead section, Calvin cycle sentenceQuote, Associated With: Photosynthesis, Lead section, Calvin cycle sentence
In this process, atmospheric carbon dioxide is incorporated into already existing organic compounds, such as ribulose bisphosphate (RuBP).
Blue Carbon (Wikipedia)
Demonstrates: Seagrass Meadow, Coastal ecosystems passage, carbon sink sentenceQuote, Demonstrates: Seagrass Meadow, Coastal ecosystems passage, carbon sink sentence
Mangroves, salt marshes and seagrasses can store carbon and are highly efficient carbon sinks.
Wetland (Wikipedia)
Demonstrates: Wetlands, Ecosystem services section, carbon sentenceQuote, Demonstrates: Wetlands, Ecosystem services section, carbon sentence
wetlands also process and condense carbon (in processes called carbon fixation and sequestration)
Tundra: Arctic (Wikipedia)
WikipediaDemonstrates: Arctic Tundra, Lead section, permafrost carbon sentenceQuote, Demonstrates: Arctic Tundra, Lead section, permafrost carbon sentence
The soil also contains large amounts of biomass and decomposed biomass that has been stored as methane and carbon dioxide in the permafrost
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