Carbon exchange of organic soils ecosystems of the world

Technical Report · Thu Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1984

OSTI ID:6943742

Armentano, T V; Menges, E S; Molofsky, J; Lawler, D J

Because the annual uptake and release of CO/sub 2/ by the earth's biota (50-100 x 10/sup 9/ t/yr (10/sup 9/ t = 1 Gt)) is 10-20 times larger than the recent annual combustion of fossil fuel (5 Gt/yr), understanding the global carbon cycle requires detailed consideration of relatively small alterations in regional photosynthesis or in the oxidation of carbon stored in the major biological pools. This report presents an original synthesis of data on wetland carbon sinks and releases. Computer simulations of wetland conversions and altered carbon balance were used to estimate carbon uptake and release rates in the tropical and temperate zones. A major goal of this study was to determine whether the world's wetlands, considered as a single global carbon pool, have been appreciably altered by human intervention since 1800. For soil carbon exchangers, only wetlands with organic soils are important because, when functioning naturally, they remove carbon from the atmosphere and retain it over long periods of time. Both tropical and temperature zone wetlands have been sequestering carbon from the atmosphere for the past 5000-10,000 years, thus forming a long-term natural carbon sink of potential significance. Prior to human intervention, the annual sequestering in this sink is estimated here to have been 0.14 Ft of carbon, three-quarters of which occurred in the temperate zone.

• Research Organization: Butler Univ., Indianapolis, IN (USA). Holcomb Research Inst.
• OSTI ID: 6943742
• Report Number(s): HRI-Paper-No.-27
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

510200* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON CYCLE
CARBON DIOXIDE
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ECOSYSTEMS
GLOBAL ASPECTS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
SIMULATION
SINKS
SOILS
WETLANDS