The Global Carbon Cycle

216 Pages·2010·1.75 MB·English

by  David Archer

the Global Carbon CyCle
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Princeton Primers in Climate
David Archer, The Global Carbon Cycle
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The Global
Carbon CyCle
David Archer
Princeton University Press Princeton & Oxford
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copyright © 2010 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press
41 William street, Princeton, new Jersey 08540
in the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press
6 oxford street, Woodstock, oxfordshire oX20 1tW
All rights reserved
isBn: 978- 0- 691- 14413- 9 (cloth)
isBn: 978-0 - 691- 14414- 6 (pbk)
Library of congress control number: 2010933104
British Library cataloging-i n- Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Minion Pro
This book is printed on recycled paper
press.princeton.edu
Printed in the United states of America
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Contents
List of Boxes vii
1 carbon on earth 1
2 The stable Geologic carbon cycle 21
3 The Unstable ice Age carbon cycle 57
4 The Present and Future carbon
cycle—stable or Unstable? 103
5 Methane 141
6 summary 174
Glossary 179
Bibliography 187
Index 203

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boxes
1.1 Units of the carbon cycle 3
1.2 reservoirs of carbon 5
1.3 oxidation and reduction of carbon 8
1.4 Photosynthesis and respiration 11
1.5 Biochemistry 101 14
1.6 origins and inventories of Fossil Fuels 17
2.1 isotopes 33
2.2 The World according to oxygen isotopes 35
2.3 The World according to carbon isotopes 39
2.4 The climate sensitivity Parameter 44
3.1 carbonate system pH chemistry 69
3.2 Biological Pump in the ocean 80
3.3 The caco cycle 91
3
4.1 Human carbon emissions 106
4.2 Air-sea exchange of co Gas 111
2
4.3 Airborne Fraction of a co slug over Geologic
2
time 122
4.4 The carbon cycle orrery 128
4.5 How Much carbon is too Much? 137
5.1 Greenhouse Properties of co and Methane 144
2
5.2 The Kinetics of a transient Gas in the
Atmosphere 150
5.3 Methanogenesis chemistry 152
5.4 Methane radical oxidation chemistry 165
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the Global Carbon CyCle
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