The Global Carbon Cycle

Erscheinungsjahr 2010
ISBN: 978-0-691-14414-6
Verlag: Princeton University Press

Buch, Englisch, 224 Seiten, Format (B × H): 128 mm x 205 mm, Gewicht: 225 g

Reihe: Princeton Primers in Climate

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Archer, David

Fachgebiete

• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Klimawandel, Globale Erwärmung
• Geowissenschaften Geologie Geophysik
• Geowissenschaften Geologie Meteorologie, Klimatologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Boxes vii

Chapter 1: C arbon on Earth 1

Chapter 2: The Stable Geologic Carbon Cycle 21

Chapter 3: The Unstable Ice Age Carbon Cycle 57

Chapter 4: The Present and Future Carbon Cycle--Stable or Unstable? 103

Chapter 5: Methane 141

Chapter 6: Summary 174

Glossary 179

Bibliography 187

Index 203

Über Autor(innen)

Archer, David
David Archer is professor of geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago. He is the author of "The Long Thaw: How Humans Are Changing the Next 100,000 Years of Earth's Climate" and "Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast", and the coauthor of "The Climate Crisis: An Introductory Guide to Climate Change".