Carbon - Major Stores

Question 1

What is the transfer (flux) of carbon meausred in?

Answer 1

Gigatonnes of carbon per year.

Question 2

What is 1 gigatonne equivalent to in tonnes?

Answer 2

1 billion tonnes.

Question 3

Who measures the amount of carbon in various stores?

Answer 3

The UN Climate Change Panel:
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (IPCC).

Question 4

What is anthropogenic carbon dioxide?

Answer 4

Carbon dioxide which is generated by human activity.

Question 5

What is the biosphere?

Answer 5

The total sum of all living matter.

Question 6

What is a carbon sink?

Answer 6

A store of carbon which absorbs more carbon than it releases.

Question 7

What is the lithosphere?

Answer 7

The crust and the uppermost mantle; this constitutes the hard and rigid outer layer of the Earth.

Question 8

What is a greenhouse gas?

Answer 8

Any gaseous compound in the atmosphere which is capable of absorbing infrared radiation, thereby trapping and holding heat in the atmosphere.

Question 9

In which form is carbon stored in the lithosphere?

Answer 9

Both inorganic (fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas, and carbonate-based sedimentary deposits such as limestone) and organic (including litter, organic matter, and humic substances found in soils).

Question 10

Which four stores is carbon in the lithosphere distributed between?

Answer 10

Marine sediments and sedimentary rocks - up to 100 million GtC.
Soil organic matter - between 1,500 and 1,600 GtC.
Fossil fuel deposits of coal, oil and gas - around 4,100 GtC.
Peat - around 250 GtC.

Question 11

Which of the four lithosphere stores contains the most carbon and how much?

Answer 11

Marine sediments and sedimentary rocks, containing up to 100 million GtC.

Question 12

Which of the four lithosphere stores contains the least amount of carbon and how much?

Answer 12

Peat containing around 250 GtC.

Question 13

Which three stores can hydrospheric carbon be distributed between?

Answer 13

The surface layer (euphotic zone).
The intermediate layer (twilight zone).
Living organic matter.

Question 14

What is the euphotic zone?

Answer 14

The surface layer of the water where sunlight penetrates so that photosynthesis can occur.

Question 15

How much carbon is stored in the euphotic zone?

Answer 15

Around 900 GtC.

Question 16

What is the twilight zone?

Answer 16

The intermediate layer and the deep layer of the water where sunlight does not penetrate and photosynthesis does not occur.

Question 17

How much carbon is stored in the twilight zone?

Answer 17

Around 37,100 GtC.

Question 18

What types of living organic matter in the hydrosphere store carbon?

Answer 18

Fish, plankton, bacteria, mammals etc.

Question 19

How much carbon is stored in living organic matter in the hydrosphere?

Answer 19

Around 30 GtC.

Question 20

How much carbon is stored in dissolved organic matter in the hydrosphere?

Answer 20

Around 700 GtC.

Question 21

What is the total amount of carbon in oceanic carbon?

Answer 21

Between 37,000 GtC - 40,000 GtC.

Question 22

What kinds of decayed organic matter contains carbon in the hydrosphere?

Answer 22

Shells, cells, carcases.

Question 23

What happens to decayed organic matter in the hydrosphere?

Answer 23

Some of it releases the CO2 into the water, and some material sinks to the bottom where it forms layers of carbon-rich sediments.

Question 24

What happens to decayed material that sinks to the bottom of the ocean?

Answer 24

Over millions of years, chemical and physical processes may turn these sediments into rock, where it can lock up carbon for millions of years.

Question 25

How much carbon is stored in marine sedimentary layers?

Answer 25

Up to 100 million GtC.

Question 26

How much carbon is stored in the terrestrial biosphere?

Answer 26

Around 3,170 GtC.

Question 27

What are the five main stores of carbon in the terrestrial biosphere?

Answer 27

Living vegetation. Plant Litter. Soil humus. Peat. Animals.

Question 28

What percentage of carbon in the biosphere on a global scale is stored in plants?

Answer 28

19%.

Question 29

Where is majority of carbon stored in plants?

Answer 29

Directly in the plant tissue.

Question 30

What percentage of the dry weight in biomass is carbon?

Answer 30

It varies between 35-65%.

Question 31

What determines the amount of carbon in biomass?

Answer 31

The location and the vegetation type.

Question 32

Half of all carbon stored in forests occurs in which types of forests?

Answer 32

High-latitude forests.

Question 33

Around one third of carbon stored in forests occurs in which types of forests?

Answer 33

Low-latitude forests.

Question 34

Where are the two largest forest resevoirs of carbon found?

Answer 34

In the large expanses of Russia.

Question 35

What percentage of the world's forest carbon is held in the large expanses of Russia?

Answer 35

25%.

Question 36

What percentage of the world's forest carbon is held in the Amazon basin?

Answer 36

20%.

Question 37

What is plant litter?

Answer 37

Fresh, undecomposed and easily recognisable plant debris.

Question 38

What are some examples of plant litter?

Answer 38

Leaves, cones, needles, twigs, barks, seeds, nuts.

Question 39

What percentage of litter in forests is composed of leaf tissues?

Answer 39

Around 70%.

Question 40

Why is the annual litter fall in grasslands very low?

Answer 40

There is very little above ground perinnial tissue.

Question 41

What are perinnial plants?

Answer 41

Plants which live more than 2 years. OR Plants with little to no woody growth.

Question 42

What is soil humus?

Answer 42

A thick brown or black substance which remains after most of the organic matter has decomposed, originating from litter decomposition.

Question 43

How does soil humus get dispersed around the soil?

Answer 43

By soil organisms such as earthworms.

Question 44

In all forests, approximately what percentage of carbon is stored in the biomass?

Answer 44

31%.

Question 45

In all forests, approximately what percentage of carbon is stored in the soil?

Answer 45

69%.

Question 46

In tropical forests, approximately what percentage of carbon is stored in the soil?

Answer 46

50%.

Question 47

In tropical forests, approximately what percentage of carbon is stored in the biomass?

Answer 47

50%.

Question 48

Altogether, how much more carbon does the world's soils hold than the vegetation?

Answer 48

2,500 GtC.

Question 49

How much carbon stored in soils is organic?

Answer 49

1,550 GtC.

Question 50

How much carbon stored in soils is inorganic?

Answer 50

950 GtC.

Question 51

What does inorganic soil carbon consist of?

Answer 51

Carbon itself, as well as carbonate materials such as calcite, dolomite, and gypsum.

Question 52

How much carbon is stored in living animals and plants?

Answer 52

560 GtC.

Question 53

How much larger is the soil carbon pool than the atmospheric pool?

Answer 53

3.1 times larger.

Question 54

What is the only carbon store larger than the soil carbon pool?

Answer 54

The ocean.

Question 55

What is peat?

Answer 55

An accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter which is unique to peatlands or mires.

Question 56

Where/ how do peat form?

Answer 56

In wetland conditions, where almost permanent water saturation obstructs flows of oxygen from the atmosphere to the ground.

Question 57

How does the conditions which peat grows ecourage decompostition?

Answer 57

Low oxygen anaerobic conditions slow down the rate of litter decomposition.

Question 58

How much land globally does peat cover?

Answer 58

Over 4 million km squared. Or 3% of the land and freshwater surface of the planet.

Question 59

How much carbon does peat store globally?

Answer 59

More than 250 GtC.

Question 60

Where is peatland found?

Answer 60

On all continents, from tropical to boreal and arctic zones on all altitudes.

Question 61

What were the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels (ppm) 500 million years ago in the Cambrian period?

Answer 61

Over 7,000 ppm

Question 62

When was the lowest known atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and how low was it?

Answer 62

The Quarternary glaciation, over the last 2 million years, at 180 ppm.

Question 63

How much carbon is stored in the atmosphere in the present?

Answer 63

It varys from 720 GtC to 800 GtC.

Question 64

What percentage of the atmosphere does carbon dioxide take up?

Answer 64

0.04%.

Question 65

What is the impact of human activity on levels of CO2 in the atmosphere?

Answer 65

Levels of CO2 are the highest they've been for 800,000 years, and most probably in the last 20 million years.

Question 66

Where is atmospheric carbon measured?

Answer 66

At the Mauna Loa Observatory (MLO) in Hawaii since 1958.

Question 67

Why is atmospheric carbon measured in Hawaii?

Answer 67

The undisturbed air, remote location, and minimal influences of vegetation or human activity are ideal for monitoring atmospheric levels.

Question 68

What has the MLO found about atmospheric carbon since 1958?

Answer 68

Global annual means of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere has increased remarkably since the industrial revolution.

Question 69

What has the global annual mean CO2 concentration in the atmosphere increased to since the industrial revolution?

Answer 69

Industrial revolution: 280 ppm March 1958: 317.7 ppm February 2015: 400.3 ppm

Question 70

What is the main cause of the rise in CO2 levels in the atmosphere?

Answer 70

Anthropogenic sources, such as deforestation, and the burning of fossil fuels.

Question 71

What is the Keeling Curve?

Answer 71

A graph showing the daily record of global atmospheric CO2 concentration.

Question 72

What rate is the daily average global amospheric CO2 concentration rising by each year?

Answer 72

Approximately 2 ppm / year, and rising.