carbon storage any process that absorbs carbon from the atmosphere is known as a carbon sink. these...
TRANSCRIPT
Carbon Storage
Any process that absorbs carbon from the atmosphere is known as a carbon sink.
These sinks can offer either long-term or short-term storage
Fossil Fuel Deposits
Long term storage of carbon
Fossil FuelsA long-term storage site for carbon can be found in the fossil fuels that are buried underground (in the lithosphere).
Fossil fuels are the remains of plants and animals that died over a period of several hundred million years. A very long process!
Phytoplankton
Trees & shrubs
Zooplankton
Microscopic plants (phytoplankton) and animals (zooplankton) form oil and gas whereas larger trees typically form coal
Fossil Fuels
Plankton is squashed and heated by many deep layers of sand and clay
In some situations organisms were quickly covered by sediment which prevented the microbes from getting the oxygen they needed to fully decompose them.
So instead of rotting ,the plants and animals of the past, were trapped in layers of sediments.
The geologic process of fossilisation took place, where heat and pressure turned the organisms into either coal, oil or gas.
Sea bed
Plankton
Sand
Clay
What could explain the Coal deposits in Antarctica?
The continent is over 3 billion year old and was once part of Gondwanaland.
It drifted on a tectonic plate from the equator to its current position.
Plants and animals inhabited the continent during a warm and temperate climate.There is evidence of fossilised plants, trees and even dinosaurs.
Google the 6ft tall penguins!
It is not easy to find rock on the continent because it is buried by ice over 3km deep but coal beds are exposed in the Transantarctic mountains!
Coal bed
School textbooks getting it wrong: fossil fuels are non-renewable?!
Strictly speaking, fossil fuels are a renewable resource!
They are continually being formed via natural processes as plants and animals die and then become buried under sediment.
But this is an incredibly slow part of the Earth’s carbon cycle!
At current rates of consumption we are burning the Earths fossil fuel reserves in a few hundred years, with the most accessible oil and gas reserves running out this century.
Will Antarctica be under threat as the hydrocarbon reserves are used up around the world?
Deep Ocean Storage
Long term & Medium term storage of carbon
Two Important Processes
Image Credit: NIWA
Physical Pump: Deep Ocean StorageThe cold deep ocean is a huge reservoir holding 50 times more carbon than the atmosphere.
More carbon dioxide will dissolve into cold water, so much carbon dioxide enters the ocean at the poles.
When opening a new bottle of carbonated drink; compare the fizz you get from a warm bottle to a cold bottle!
Antarctic Bottom Water When sea ice forms in the Ross Sea, the salinity of the water increases and as it becomes even more dense it sinks. This sets up one of the globes great ocean conveyor belts.
The carbon dioxide remains in the deep water ocean circulation system before it rises up in the tropics.
Antarctic Bottom Water
S. Ocean(darker blue)
When sea ice forms, salt water is expelled. This makes the already cold dense water denser still. The Ross Sea has the densest water on the planet!
Biological Pump: Photosynthesis & SedimentationDead marine organisms add to a pool of organic sediment deposited on the deep ocean floor. Some are buried and stored for millions of years. The organisms are mainly microscopic in size and have calcium carbonate shells (CaCO3).
Layers of shell and sediment are cemented together to make limestone rock. Microscopic
phytoplankton forms a muddy ooze!
Image Credit: New Scientisthttp://www.newscientist.com/data/images/archive/2675/26751901.jpg
THE SLOW CARBON CYCLE: Carbon Cycling over a very long time scale taking millions of years and involving the lithosphere, atmosphere & oceans.
Soil
Antarctic nematodes and climate change
Climate change affects not only air temperature and sea levels, but soil as well. And an American scientist is on an award-winning quest to reverse the damage.
About 500 gigatons of carbon are stored above ground in plants and other living organisms, while soil holds approximately 1,500 gigatons of carbon.
It is also thought that the earth’s soils store vast amounts of carbon. Most of this carbon is thought to be held within detritus (dead organisms) and an enormous mass of nematode worms!
Check out the story of the Antarctic Rambo Worm!
Most of the Earth’s carbon is stored in the lithosphere as rocks, mainly limestone. This is cycled very slowly and is not discussed here.
Plants & Phytoplankton
Short term storage of carbon
THE FAST CARBON CYCLE: Forests
Dry wood is about 50% carbon.Forests are a carbon sink and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis.
This carbon is then retuned to the atmosphere through the plants own cellular respiration, decomposition of plants or forest fires. Of course the plants could be eaten so the animals in the food web would return the carbon to the atmosphere too!
The forests of the world are big carbon sinks – or rather, they used to be! Deforestation has removed vast areas of forest.
THE FAST CARBON CYCLE: Phytoplankton
Phytoplankton are the ‘forests’ of the ocean.
Although they are microscopic in size, they make their own food through the process of photosynthesis, just like other plants.
These microscopic plants extract carbon dioxide that is dissolved in water.
Phytoplankton called diatoms found in the Ross Sea. They support the vast Southern Ocean ecosystem
Image credit: National Geographichttp://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/02/110228-antarctica-green-algae-bloom-global-warming-science-environment/