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Topic: Carbon sinks

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	Climate Change \| The Climate Challenge: Our Choices
		The amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is increasing.
		The main carbon sinks responsible for removals are photosynthesis and absorption by the oceans.
		The oceans are both a carbon sink and a source of CO2.
	www.seed.slb.com /en/scictr/watch/climate_change/challenge.htm (1754 words)

	The Environmental Literacy Council - Sources & Sinks (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-24)
		Carbon, for example, may be stored deep within ocean sediments for many millions of years or it might be cycled back into the atmosphere in a matter of hours.
		The carbon cycle is one of the Earth's major biogeochemical cycles; vast amounts of carbon continuously cycle between the Earth's atmosphere, oceans, and land surfaces in both short and long-term cycles.
		The carbon exchange in the world's oceans take place on a very large scale, but it is often thought of to be a very rapid process; absorbing and releasing CO in short-term cycles with little long-term storage.
	www.enviroliteracy.org /article.php/439.html (1072 words)

	NASA Oceanography - The Ocean and the Carbon Cycle
		Carbon is also sequestered for long periods of time in carbon reservoirs (sinks) such as deep ocean and ocean sediment.
		sinks of carbon, quantify their strengths, and understand how they depend on environmental factors that are rapidly changing.
		Carbon dioxide is more soluble in cold water, so at high latitudes where surface cooling occurs, carbon dioxide laden water sinks to the deep ocean and becomes part of the deep ocean circulation "conveyor belt", where it stays for hundreds of years.
	science.hq.nasa.gov /oceans/system/carbon.html (1303 words)

	Understanding Global Climate Change \| Global Warming: What it Is; Carbon Dioxide
		Carbon is one of the foundational elements of life on Earth.
		Carbon in trees may not re-enter the atmosphere for thousands of years while carbon in a flower may return in several months.
		The long retention of carbon in the oceans makes such large masses of water "carbon sinks." Forests also are considered carbon sinks, but less is known about their exchange rates.
	www.facsnet.org /issues/specials/gcc/basic/carbon.php3 (506 words)

	Carbon sinks
		The concept of carbon sinks is based on the natural ability of trees, other plants and the soil to soak up carbon dioxide and temporarily store the carbon in wood, roots, leaves and the soil.
		The absorption of carbon dioxide by trees and the soil, proponents of carbon sink credits suggest, would be just as valid a means to achieve emission reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol as cutting emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels.
		Carbon sinks are thus likely to contribute to increasing long-term atmospheric concentrations of CO2 – the exact opposite of the intended effect, and a dangerous avoidance of emission cuts which need to take place now to avoid increasing the threats of climate change to future generations even further.
	www.fern.org /pages/climate/carbon.html (1003 words)

	Carbon dioxide sink - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The former is primarily a function of differential CO solubility in seawater and the thermohaline circulation, while the latter is the sum of a series of biological processes that transport carbon (in organic and inorganic forms) from the surface euphotic zone to the ocean's interior.
		Carbon offset programs are planting millions of fast-growing trees per year to reforest tropical lands, for as little as $0.10 per tree; over their typical 40-year lifetime, one million of these trees will fix 0.9 teragrams of carbon dioxide[9].
		The global cooling effect of carbon seqestration by forests is partially counterbalanced: For example, the planting of new forests may initially be a source of carbon dioxide emission when carbon from the soil is released into the atmosphere.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Carbon_dioxide_sink (3486 words)

	Physics Today August 2002
		Organic carbon buried in sediments as coal, natural gas, and oil over literally hundreds of millions of years is being consumed as a result of human activities and returned to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO) on a time scale of a few centuries.
		For many years, researchers have believed that the dominant sink mechanism is the fertilizing effects of increased CO concentrations in the atmosphere and the addition to soils of fixed nitrogen from fossil-fuel burning and agricultural fertilizers.
		The estimate of the land sink in the coterminous US discussed previously gives a total carbon sink that is on the low side but within the uncertainty of what is implied by atmospheric inversions.
	www.aip.org /pt/vol-55/iss-8/p30.html (3285 words)

	Carbon Cycle Atmospheric Measurements
		Prediction of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere is important because the abundance of this green house gas is a major regulator of climate.
		Carbon dioxide is the most important excess anthropogenic greenhouse gas implicated in future climate change.
		The efficiency of these carbon sinks changes from year to year and decade to decade, due to a variety of mechanisms only partly understood.
	www.oar.noaa.gov /organization/budget05/climate_carboncycle.html (737 words)

	Climate Change \| Carbon Dioxide Sinks
		Carbon dioxide is constantly being removed from the atmosphere as part of the carbon cycle.
		When this slightly acidic rain meets carbonate rocks such as limestone or chalk, it dissolves some of the rock, which is then carried by streams and rivers back to the ocean.
		Carbonate solution by rainwater also contributes toward the erosion of buildings and statues made from limestone and marble.
	www.seed.slb.com /en/scictr/watch/climate_change/sinks.htm (902 words)

	EO News: Grasslands Can Act as "Carbon Sinks" - January 10, 2001
		Carbon sequestration occurs in an ecosystem when the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by growing plants is greater than the amount of the gas released by decomposing plant material.
		Between 1992 and 1997, the researchers maintained two sets of open-top chambers at the grassland, one in which carbon dioxide levels were maintained at their normal level — 360 parts per million (ppm) — and one in which they were doubled to 720 ppm.
		At the same time, the research indicates that the extent of carbon buildup in the grassland soil may be limited, because the lower rate of plant decomposition reduces the supply of nitrogen for additional plant growth.
	earthobservatory.nasa.gov /Newsroom/MediaAlerts/2001/200101104398.html (849 words)

	ALN #49: Olsson et al.: The potential benefits of carbon sinks in dryland agricultural soils
		Carbon in the form of CO2 is accumulating in the atmosphere at a rate of about 3.5 petagrams per year (Pg/yr).
		It is claimed that sinks could not wholly solve the problem, because the amount of carbon they would sequester is not enough to reduce the rate of increase of atmospheric CO2 to acceptable levels, and because offsets might delay emission reductions.
		Carbon sequestration can be achieved in these low-input systems by the application of immediately deployable low-input land management practices such as increased use of green fallow periods, conservation tillage (Lal 1997), increased used of rotational crops, return of crop residues to the soil and agroforestry.
	ag.arizona.edu /OALS/ALN/aln49/olsson.html (1435 words)

	Seas and Soils Emerge as Keys to Climate
		In it, carbon is constantly exchanged among the air, the terrestrial biosphere, the oceans and the solid rock of the earth at varying rates on time scales ranging from hours to millions of years.
		The expansion of these carbon reservoirs, or "sinks," in vegetation and soil has been sanctioned as one way industrialized countries might meet their obligations under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which is aimed at reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
		The rules governing carbon sinks are among the many sets of yet-to-be adopted regulations necessary to put the protocol into effect, and only a few countries have ratified the agreement pending action on them.
	www.treepower.org /news/nytglobalwarming-carbonsinks.html (1991 words)

	Carbon Reservoirs and Fluxes (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-24)
		We must include inventories of the carbon stored in terrestrial plants and animals, carbon in the ocean, carbon in the atmosphere, and reserves of fossil carbon that represent terrestrial carbon taken out of the biosphere at times in the distant past.
		For instance, methane molecules, which have one carbon atom and 4 hydrogen atoms, may be produced rather than carbon dioxide in the decay process, particularly in moist soils, marshes, and boreal tundra.
		Carbon monoxide also is released to the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels and from decay of plant material.
	www.iitap.iastate.edu /gccourse/chem/gases/carbon.html (705 words)

	Agriculture and the Environment - Climate Changes: Soil Carbon Sinks
		Carbon dioxide emissions from agricultural soils have been declining for many years and are expected to move from being a net source to a net sink for atmospheric carbon within the next few years.
		This report outlines this process, describes the farming practices that can decrease carbon loss from the soils, highlights additional environmental and economic benefits and explains the progress scientists are making to refine their methods of measuring, monitoring, and verifying carbon changes in the soils.
		At present, agricultural emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane are recognized in the Kyoto Protocol, yet carbon sequestration is not.
	www.agr.gc.ca /policy/environment/air_03_02_e.phtml (796 words)

	Carbon Sequestration
		Thus, carbon projects under the CDM are considered to mitigate carbon emissions for the credit of industrialized countries, while supporting sustainable development in the developing countries, where such projects are to be implemented.
		Sinks under the CDM are currently hotly debated by the Parties of UNFCCC.
		Carbon sequestration, which is expected to be an effective tool only for the next 30 years (Noble and Scholes, submitted) might help to mitigate a substantial portion of atmospheric C while simultaneously allowing for the development of more feasible measures for emission reduction in the energy sector.
	edcintl.cr.usgs.gov /carbonseq/Mackensen.html (836 words)

	GreenBiz News \| The Carbon Trade
		Carbon is the common denominator in all polluting gases that cause global warming.
		These services are usually forests and tree-planting projects and are known in the business as carbon assets or carbon sinks, because trees remove carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it in their wood.
		Climate Care is a nonprofit organization that sells carbon sinks to individuals and companies and invests the profits in environmentally friendly projects, including wildlife protection in Uganda, energy efficiency in the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, and small scale hydro dams in Bulgaria.
	www.greenbiz.com /news/reviews_third.cfm?NewsID=27190 (1305 words)

	CRC for Greenhouse Accounting - Reducing greenhouse: Carbon sinks
		Carbon is continuously cycled between these reservoirs in the ocean, on the land, and in the atmosphere.
		Plants remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store the carbon in roots, stems, leaves and the soil in a process known as sequestration.
		The development of policy on 'sinks' has evolved to cover emissions and removals of greenhouse gases resulting from land use, land-use change and forestry; the acronym LULUCF is now used to refer to this sector.
	www.greenhouse.crc.org.au /reducing_greenhouse/carbonsinks.cfm (713 words)

	Study Casts Doubt on Uses of Carbon Sinks
		Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the primary greenhouse gas entering the atmosphere from human activities.
		A study published this week in the journal "Nature" indicates that carbon sinks were able to mop up most of the naturally and artificially emitted carbon dioxide over the past decade.
		"Although carbon sinks have a role to play in absorbing excess carbon dioxide, it is possible that the net global terrestrial carbon sink may disappear altogether in the future," said lead author Professor David Schimel from the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany.
	www.ens-newswire.com /ens/nov2001/2001-11-08-07.asp (1038 words)

	EO Study: Rain Helps Carbon Sink
		Though researchers have known of this North American carbon sink for the better part of the 20th century, they do not understand precisely what is causing the sink or why the amount of carbon absorbed seems to increase over the years.
		The increased rate of the carbon sink results from a synchronous interplay between plant physiology and both the timing and magnitude of changes that impact the water cycle.
		Such carbon sinks, however, are unlikely to lower CO concentrations enough to cure global warming.
	earthobservatory.nasa.gov /Study/CarbonHydrology (1401 words)

	Contribution to the debate on carbon sinks
		Much of the carbon, of course, is turned into leaves which eventually fall to the ground as the tree grows.
		Therefore, most of the sequestered carbon will be ultimately released as methane or simply re-released as carbon in the process of harvest, chipping, pulping, waste, production into paper, and finally, decomposition.
		The science behind carbon sequestration in plantations is not science at all, but is instead smoke and mirrors used to generate more plantations, benefitting large paper, pulp and wood products companies, at the expense of the Earth and local people.
	www.wrm.org.uy /bulletin/17/carbonsinks.html (614 words)

	09/23/00 -- Ancient Old-Growth Forests Best Carbon Sinks (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-24)
		Without the ability to take a full inventory of carbon emissions, countries looking to use the carbon sink provision instead of reducing their emissions may actually be able to increase their net release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
		The total carbon pool of a stand decreases in young stands because decomposition of dead biomass from the previous forest generation results in respiration that is higher than the NPP of the regrowth.
		The carbon loss decreases initially because the respiratory losses caused by decomposition of coarse wood debris left over from the preceeding forest generation are higher than the carbon uptake of the young regrowing forest.
	forests.org /archive/general/plnewfor.htm (3446 words)

	'carbon sinks'
		Sinks refers to the use of trees, soils and oceans to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
		While the science of sinks is still uncertain, there is a broad consensus that any potential storage of carbon is temporary as trees naturally live out their life cycles or are felled and the resultant carbon is ultimately
		Many environmentalists and indigenous communities around the world fear that use of sinks will have a negligible impact on reducing global warming while having an enormous impact on people worldwide as poor countries, desperate to earn money to pay back debts, look to selling their lands and forests for the carbon markets.
	www.carbontradewatch.org /issues/sinks.html (257 words)

	Windows to the Universe Activity
		Carbon dioxide has a characteristic that enables students to detect CO 2 in a classroom setting.
		When gas containing CO 2 is bubbled through a BTB solution, carbonic acid forms and the indicator turns from dark blue to green, yellow, or very pale yellow depending on the CO 2 concentration (lighter colors mean higher concentrations).
		Carbon dioxide (CO 2) provides the bubble in your soda pop and the "rise" in your baked goods.
	www.windows.ucar.edu /tour/link=/teacher_resources/teach_CO2.html (1517 words)

	Carbon offset - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Carbon offsets can be purchased by individuals, businesses and governments to reduce their net emissions farther than what they have achieved through their efforts to conserve energy and use renewable energy.
		Trees absorb carbon dioxide (sequester carbon) by using photosynthesis to combine water with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, thereby forming wood and releasing oxygen.
		Carbon neutrality is quickly becoming an eco-label, with companies offseting their carbon emissions and using the label to appeal to environmentally conscious consumers.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Carbon_offset (1324 words)

	science@nasa - Carbon Management
		New technologies for reduction of carbon emissions and storage of carbon deep underground or in the oceans are two principal options to achieve long-term reduction in the concentration of CO in the atmosphere.
		In developing a science-based carbon management regime, knowledge of the carbon cycle is fully exploited to assist operational agencies fulfill their mandates to manage carbon and to support local, regional, national, and global policy and planning for control of carbon in the environment.
		An example of NASA contributions to carbon sequestration is found in NASA support of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the development of guidelines for a voluntary program for sequestration of carbon in biomass and soils.
	science.hq.nasa.gov /earth-sun/applications/theme4.htm (649 words)

	David Suzuki Foundation: Climate Change : Forests & Sinks
		Oil, coal and gas combustion introduce at least 6 billion tonnes of carbon to the carbon cycle every year -- carbon that was stored underground, separated from the atmosphere for millions of years.
		Intensive farming releases carbon from the soil to the atmosphere.
		Although many projects, such as tree planting, may enhance carbon sinks and biodiversity, they could also diminish the impetus for long-term solutions to climate change: energy conservation and efficiency, and renewable energy sources.
	www.davidsuzuki.org /Climate_Change/Science/Forests_And_Sinks.asp (372 words)

	Studies Measure Capacity of "Carbon Sinks" (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-24)
		The emission of carbon dioxide from the combustion of fossil fuels is the leading cause of the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which many people believe is the main culprit behind an increase in Earth's temperatures.
		While some carbon is absorbed by organic matter such as trees and shrubs, carbon is also regularly emitted into the atmosphere by activities on land such as the burning of fossil fuels.
		The first method involves measuring concentrations of carbon dioxide in the air as the air moves across landmasses from Point A to Point B. The second method entails making an inventory of all the carbon in a given area of ground and calculating the difference between the levels of carbon recorded from year to year.
	news.nationalgeographic.com /news/2001/06/0621_carbonsinks.html (452 words)

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