Carbon cycle

What are stores in carbon cycle

Natural systems that accumulate and hold carbon

What does terrestrial mean

On or relating to the earth

What’s are fluxes

The rate of flow between stores

What’s equilibrium

A state in which opposing forces or influences are balanced

What is out gassing

The release of gases or vapours trapped, dissolved or absorbed within any material. Often triggered by reduced pressure.

When was the Paris Climate Conference first signed and by whom

December 2015 and by 195 countries

What was the Paris Climate Conference and its goals( COP21 )

The first legally binding global climate deal.

Governments agreed to a long term goal of keeping the increase in global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius above pre industrial levels

Requires serious reduction of GHG emissions

What did Trump do in terms of climate if COP21

President Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement but 8 US states have introduced legislation to reach 100% renewable energy in the coming decades

What did IPCC state about COP21 goals

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated that keeping levels below 2 degrees Celsius wouldn’t be enough and that it would be necessary to keep levels below 1.5 degrees Celsius to prevent disaster.

What was COP30 about and when was it

Jan 2025 in Brazil to discuss and negotiate actions against climate change

What did Trump do in early Jan 2026

Withdrew from key climate treaties any many other groups which protect the environment.

What was the global gas consumption in 2024

40 Terawatts hour (TWh)

What was the global oil consumption in 2024

55 Terawatts hours (TWh)

What was the global coal consumption in 2024

46 Terawatts hour (TWh)

How do national factors affect oil production and consumption

Fracking in USA reduces dependency of oil imports so impacts OPEC prices of oil

Economic growth in China exceeds 9% in 2000s

Oil consumption in US grew by 9%

What are some regional factors ( multiple nations) that affect oil production and consumption

EU has warmer winters so fall in demand for energy

2011-2012 instability due to Arab springs and Libyan Crisis

Fracking in USA between 2014 and 2016 has made oil prices to drop so increase competition. This causes OPEC to reduce oil prices to compete even though they maintain oil production

Terrorism, lack of investment and instability in ME causes oil production to drop between 1998 -2007

What are some global factors that affect oil production and consumption

2008 financial cris creates a dip in emissions and increased oil prices

Global pandemic COVID

What’s thermo haline circulation

Movement of ocean currents due to differences in temperature and salinity in different regions of water.

What’s the biological carbon pump

A set of processes that transfer organic carbon from surface to deep ocean and is at the heart of the ocean carbon cycle

What’s carbonate pump

Whole process of carbon entering and moving around the ocean

What are biological decomposes

Organisms mostly bacteria,fungi and invertebrates that break down dead plants, animals and waste products into simpler inorganic substances

Why is carbon important

Considered as the building block of life as it can be found in all of the earths spheres, animals plants and trees. Carbon is in GHG like CO2 and methane and fossil fuels which are mostly made up of hydrocarbons

What are the different stores of carbon

Atmosphere - CO2, methane

Hydrosphere - dissolved CO2

Lithosphere - carbonates in limestone and fossil fuels

Biosphere - in living and dead organisms

Cryosphere - biological carbon in permafrost, preventing bacterial decay

What the order of the stores of carbons from highest to lowest

Lithosphere - 100,000,000 pg petagrams

Oceans - 38,000 pg

Fossil fuels - 4000 pg

Soils - 1500 pg

Atmosphere - 5750

Plants - 560 pg

What are the different fluxes of the carbon cycle

Burning fossil fuels

Photosynthesis

Plant respiration

Soil respiration

Plant litter fall

Ocean uptake

Ocean loss

Deforestation

Rivers

Volcanoes

What are the order of fluxes of fluxes in carbon cycle from highest to lowest

Photosynthesis - 120 Pg

Ocean uptake - 92 Pg

Ocean loss - 90 Pg

Plant litter fall, soil respiration, plant respiration- 60 Pg

Burning fossil fuels - 6 Pg

Deforestation - 0.9 Pg

Rivers - 0.8 Pg

What’s the short carbon cycle

Determines how much carbon is available and stored in the cycle. Life is critical to this cycle. Also known as the biogeochemical carbon cycle. It has reservoir turnover rates between few year to thousand years.

What are the carbon fluxes between seconds and minutes

Plants absorb carbon from atmosphere for photosynthesis and release back into atmosphere via transpiration

What are the annual fluxes of carbons fluxes

10-500 years carbon from dead plant materials reside in soils for years before being decomposed by microbes and released back into atmosphere

What are the carbon fluxes between 1000 and millions of years

Organic material buried deep in sediments slowly transform into deposits of coal ,oil and gas which are fossil fuels. Burning this releases carbon into atmosphere