An unknown 'fight'

Hi everyone! Today I will show you a natural continuous conflict that all people depend on:

The whole system of the carbon cycle “fights back” the anthropogenic CO₂ (one important greenhouse effect) using the fluxes illustrated in the 2nd post.

• The oceans:

The oceans uptake large amount of CO₂ derived from the difference between the carbon concentrations in the atmosphere and the surface of the oceans. The limitation of this absorption is that the increase of the CO₂ emissions in the air reduces the uptake from the oceans because of the:

1.   Reduction of the buffer capacity of the oceans

1.   Mixing rate between the surface and the deep water

The result of the carbon dissolved in the sea is the lower pH that effect the marine life (Prentice et al., 2003).

• The terrestrial system:

The terrestrial system absorbs the CO₂ from the atmosphere with the help of the vegetation. The carbon sinks in the terrace is connected with the photosynthesis. More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere means more production by the plants. On the other hand, high concentration of atmospheric CO₂, does not benefit the production at the same scale. Thus, the ability of the terrestrial ecosystem to sink carbon from the atmosphere is limited. (Prentice et al., 2003)

The following video illustrates the human impact in the carbon fluxes and the result of the increasing CO₂ in the atmosphere (greenhouse effect).

 human impact in thecarbon fluxes

Next time we will continue our trip in Carbonland examining the terrestrial mechanisms.

See you! 

Human influence in the Atmosphere!

Hi everyone! In this post I would like to write about the atmosphere and the human impact on the CO­­2 emissions.

First of all, it is known that CO2 contributes to the greenhouse effect. This effect helps the planet to maintain a temperature able to support life as the average surface temperature without the greenhouse effect would be -33 oC !!! (R. A. Houghton 2003).

BUT the additional CO2 emitted to the atmosphere by the humans activities, is increasing the concentration of the greenhouse gases, enhancing the greenhouse effect, and starting to warm up the Earth (R. A. Houghton 2003).This increase of the temperature helps the "existence" of the climate change.

Carbon emissions from coal fired plants

The climate change is close connected with the sustainable development in terms of human settlements, industries and general with many aspects of the society. For example, the carbon emissions are related with the economic growth and the social life of a country that is reflected in the energy consumption of the houses and the factories (Wibanks et al.2007).

In the next post I will try to describe how the global carbon cycle fights back this emissions and tries to give a positive feedback in the environment.

See you soon!