Carbon in Earth


Book Description

"Carbon in Earth is an outgrowth of the Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO), a 10-year international research effort dedicated to achieving transformational understanding of the chemical and biological roles of carbon in Earth (http://dco.ciw.edu). Hundreds of researchers from 6 continents, including all 51 coauthors of this volume, are now engaged in the DCO effort. This volume serves as a benchmark for our present understanding of Earth's carbon - both what we know and what we have yet to learn. Ultimately, the goal is to produce a second, companion volume to mark the progress of this decadal initiative.




Carbon in Earth's Interior


Book Description

Carbon in Earth's fluid envelopes - the atmosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere, plays a fundamental role in our planet's climate system and a central role in biology, the environment, and the economy of earth system. The source and original quantity of carbon in our planet is uncertain, as are the identities and relative importance of early chemical processes associated with planetary differentiation. Numerous lines of evidence point to the early and continuing exchange of substantial carbon between Earth's surface and its interior, including diamonds, carbon-rich mantle-derived magmas, carbonate rocks in subduction zones and springs carrying deeply sourced carbon-bearing gases. Thus, there is little doubt that a substantial amount of carbon resides in our planet's interior. Yet, while we know it must be present, carbon's forms, transformations and movements at conditions relevant to the interiors of Earth and other planets remain uncertain and untapped. Volume highlights include: - Reviews key, general topics, such as carbonate minerals, the deep carbon cycle, and carbon in magmas or fluids - Describes new results at the frontiers of the field with presenting results on carbon in minerals, melts, and fluids at extreme conditions of planetary interiors - Brings together emerging insights into carbon's forms, transformations and movements through study of the dynamics, structure, stability and reactivity of carbon-based natural materials - Reviews emerging new insights into the properties of allied substances that carry carbon, into the rates of chemical and physical transformations, and into the complex interactions between moving fluids, magmas, and rocks to the interiors of Earth and other planets - Spans the various chemical redox states of carbon, from reduced hydrocarbons to zero-valent diamond and graphite to oxidized CO2 and carbonates - Captures and synthesizes the exciting results of recent, focused efforts in an emerging scientific discipline - Reports advances over the last decade that have led to a major leap forward in our understanding of carbon science - Compiles the range of methods that can be tapped tap from the deep carbon community, which includes experimentalists, first principles theorists, thermodynamic modelers and geodynamicists - Represents a reference point for future deep carbon science research Carbon in Planetary Interiors will be a valuable resource for researchers and students who study the Earth's interior. The topics of this volume are interdisciplinary, and therefore will be useful to professionals from a wide variety of fields in the Earth Sciences, such as mineral physics, petrology, geochemistry, experimentalists, first principles theorists, thermodynamics, material science, chemistry, geophysics and geodynamics.




Deep Carbon


Book Description

A comprehensive guide to carbon inside Earth - its quantities, movements, forms, origins, changes over time and impact on planetary processes. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.




Carbon in the Geobiosphere


Book Description

The book covers the fundamentals of the biogeochemical behavior of carbon near the Earth’s surface. It is mainly a reference text for Earth and environmental scientists. It presents an overview of the origins and behavior of the carbon cycle and atmospheric carbon dioxide, and the human effects on them. The book can also be used for a one-semester course at an intermediate to advanced level addressing the behavior of the carbon and related cycles.




The Global Carbon Cycle


Book Description

While a number of gases are implicated in global warming, carbon dioxide is the most important contributor, and in one sense the entire phenomena can be seen as a human-induced perturbation of the carbon cycle. The Global Carbon Cycle offers a scientific assessment of the state of current knowledge of the carbon cycle by the world's leading scientists sponsored by SCOPE and the Global Carbon Project, and other international partners. It gives an introductory over-view of the carbon cycle, with multidisciplinary contributions covering biological, physical, and social science aspects. Included are 29 chapters covering topics including: an assessment of carbon-climate-human interactions; a portfolio of carbon management options; spatial and temporal distribution of sources and sinks of carbon dioxide; socio-economic driving forces of emissions scenarios. Throughout, contributors emphasize that all parts of the carbon cycle are interrelated, and only by developing a framework that considers the full set of feedbacks will we be able to achieve a thorough understanding and develop effective management strategies. The Global Carbon Cycle edited by Christopher B. Field and Michael R. Raupach is part of the Rapid Assessment Publication series produced by the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), in an effort to quickly disseminate the collective knowledge of the world's leading experts on topics of pressing environmental concern.




Marine Carbon Biogeochemistry


Book Description

This open access book discusses biogeochemical processes relevant to carbon and aims to provide readers, graduate students and researchers, with insight into the functioning of marine ecosystems. A carbon centric approach has been adopted, but other elements are included where relevant or needed. The book focuses on concepts and quantitative understanding of primary production, organic matter mineralization and sediment biogeochemistry. The impact of biogeochemical processes on inorganic carbon dynamics and organic matter transformation are also discussed.




The Global Carbon Cycle


Book Description

A must-have introduction to this fundamental driver of the climate system The Global Carbon Cycle is a short introduction to this essential geochemical driver of the Earth's climate system, written by one of the world's leading climate-science experts. In this one-of-a-kind primer, David Archer engages readers in clear and simple terms about the many ways the global carbon cycle is woven into our climate system. He begins with a concise overview of the subject, and then looks at the carbon cycle on three different time scales, describing how the cycle interacts with climate in very distinct ways in each. On million-year time scales, feedbacks in the carbon cycle stabilize Earth's climate and oxygen concentrations. Archer explains how on hundred-thousand-year glacial/interglacial time scales, the carbon cycle in the ocean amplifies climate change, and how, on the human time scale of decades, the carbon cycle has been dampening climate change by absorbing fossil-fuel carbon dioxide into the oceans and land biosphere. A central question of the book is whether the carbon cycle could once again act to amplify climate change in centuries to come, for example through melting permafrost peatlands and methane hydrates. The Global Carbon Cycle features a glossary of terms, suggestions for further reading, and explanations of equations, as well as a forward-looking discussion of open questions about the global carbon cycle.




Climate Intervention


Book Description

The signals are everywhere that our planet is experiencing significant climate change. It is clear that we need to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from our atmosphere if we want to avoid greatly increased risk of damage from climate change. Aggressively pursuing a program of emissions abatement or mitigation will show results over a timescale of many decades. How do we actively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to make a bigger difference more quickly? As one of a two-book report, this volume of Climate Intervention discusses CDR, the carbon dioxide removal of greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere and sequestration of it in perpetuity. Climate Intervention: Carbon Dioxide Removal and Reliable Sequestration introduces possible CDR approaches and then discusses them in depth. Land management practices, such as low-till agriculture, reforestation and afforestation, ocean iron fertilization, and land-and-ocean-based accelerated weathering, could amplify the rates of processes that are already occurring as part of the natural carbon cycle. Other CDR approaches, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration, direct air capture and sequestration, and traditional carbon capture and sequestration, seek to capture CO2 from the atmosphere and dispose of it by pumping it underground at high pressure. This book looks at the pros and cons of these options and estimates possible rates of removal and total amounts that might be removed via these methods. With whatever portfolio of technologies the transition is achieved, eliminating the carbon dioxide emissions from the global energy and transportation systems will pose an enormous technical, economic, and social challenge that will likely take decades of concerted effort to achieve. Climate Intervention: Carbon Dioxide Removal and Reliable Sequestration will help to better understand the potential cost and performance of CDR strategies to inform debate and decision making as we work to stabilize and reduce atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide.




Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments


Book Description

One of Springer’s Major Reference Works, this book gives the reader a truly global perspective. It is the first major reference work in its field. Paleoclimate topics covered in the encyclopedia give the reader the capability to place the observations of recent global warming in the context of longer-term natural climate fluctuations. Significant elements of the encyclopedia include recent developments in paleoclimate modeling, paleo-ocean circulation, as well as the influence of geological processes and biological feedbacks on global climate change. The encyclopedia gives the reader an entry point into the literature on these and many other groundbreaking topics.




Hothouse Earth


Book Description

As hurricanes, droughts, floods, and wildfires are increasing in regularity and intensity, climate change can no longer be ignored. Melting permafrost, forest dieback, ocean acidification, and other processes are creating positive feedback loops which could, if not aggressively and quickly addressed, spiral out of control and take global warming past the point of no return. Hothouse Earth examines how science, politics, and social justice must all be part of the equation to counteract climate change.