Stores, residence times, fluxes and flows of water and carbon

Key stores of water

oceans

cryosphere

atmosphere (water vapour and clouds)

groundwater

biosphere (living organisms, plants, animals)

What are the sizes of these stores?

OCEANS- over 1.3 billion km³

CRYOSPHERE- 24 million km³

ATMOSPHERE- 13,000 km³

BIOSPHERE- 1000 KM³

What are the residence times of these stores?

OCEANS- 4000 years

CRYOSPHERE- 1000 years (but can be 15,000 years for glaciers)

ATMOSPHERE- 10 Days

BIOSPHERE- 1.5 days

What are fluxes?

how much water moves between stores via certain flows/ processes per year

Examples of the sizes of different fluxes for different processes?

(evaporation, precipitation, evapotranspiration, advection)

advection being

EVAPORATION- 500,000 km³ (LARGEST FLUX)

PRECIPITATION- OVER 450,000 km³

EVAPOTRANSPIRATION- 65,000 km³

main stores of carbon?

oceans

atmosphere

cryosphere

terrestrial biosphere

lithosphere

what are the sizes of these stores for carbon?

oceans- 38,000 Gtc (in the deep ocean store)

Cryosphere- 1580 Gtc

terrestrial biosphere- 610 Gtc

atmosphere- 750-800 Gtc

lithosphere/ in fossil fuels- 12,000 Gtc

what are the residence times of these stores?

(deep) oceans- 350-1500 years

cryosphere- decade- centuries

atmosphere- 3-100 years

terrestrial biosphere- days- decades

lithosphere/in fossil fuels- millions of years