Reservoir absorbing more carbon from, than emitting to, the air
This article is about storage reservoirs for carbon. For the processes involved for storing carbon for a long time, see carbon sequestration.
Carbon sinks (green bars on the right) remove carbon from the atmosphere, whereas carbon sources (greenhouse gas emissions) (grey bars on the left) add them. Since the 1850s, there are more carbon sources than sinks and therefore the carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere is rising.[1]
A carbon sink is a natural or artificial process that "removes a greenhouse gas, an aerosol or a precursor of a greenhouse gas from the atmosphere".[2]: 2249 These sinks form an important part of the natural carbon cycle. An overarching term is carbon pool, which is all the places where carbon on Earth can be, i.e. the atmosphere, oceans, soil, plants, and so forth. A carbon sink is a type of carbon pool that has the capability to take up more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases.
Globally, the two most important carbon sinks are vegetation and the ocean.[3] Soil is an important carbon storage medium. Much of the organic carbon retained in the soil of agricultural areas has been depleted due to intensive farming. Blue carbon designates carbon that is fixed via certain marine ecosystems. Coastal blue carbon includes mangroves, salt marshes and seagrasses. These make up a majority of ocean plant life and store large quantities of carbon. Deep blue carbon is located in international waters and includes carbon contained in "continental shelf waters, deep-sea waters and the sea floor beneath them".[4]
For climate change mitigation purposes, the enhancement of natural carbon sinks, mainly soils and forests, is important.[5] In the past, human practices like deforestation and industrial agriculture have depleted natural carbon sinks. This kind of land use change has been one of the causes of climate change.
^"Global Carbon Budget 2021" (PDF). Global Carbon Project. 4 November 2021. p. 57. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 December 2021. The cumulative contributions to the global carbon budget from 1850. The carbon imbalance represents the gap in our current understanding of sources & sinks. ... Source: Friedlingstein et al 2021; Global Carbon Project 2021
^Cite error: The named reference IPCC AR6 WGI Glossary was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Carbon Sources and Sinks". National Geographic Society. 26 March 2020. Archived from the original on 14 December 2020. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
^"The ocean – the world's greatest ally against climate change". United Nations. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
^Binkley, Clark S.; Brand, David; Harkin, Zoe; Bull, Gary; Ravindranath, N. H.; Obersteiner, Michael; Nilsson, Sten; Yamagata, Yoshiki; Krott, Max (1 May 2002). "Carbon sink by the forest sector—options and needs for implementation". Forest Policy and Economics. 4 (1): 65–77. doi:10.1016/S1389-9341(02)00005-9. ISSN 1389-9341.
A carbonsink is a natural or artificial process that "removes a greenhouse gas, an aerosol or a precursor of a greenhouse gas from the atmosphere".: 2249 ...
absorb carbon dioxide from the air as they grow, and bind it into biomass. However, these biological stores are considered impermanent carbonsinks as the...
from carbonsinks. To describe the dynamics of the carbon cycle, a distinction can be made between the fast and slow carbon cycle. The fast carbon cycle...
CO2 emissions to the atmosphere are absorbed by land and ocean carbonsinks. These sinks can become saturated and are volatile, as decay and wildfires...
atmosphere in the first place, as the other half is quickly absorbed by carbonsinks in the land and oceans.: 450 Further, the warming per unit of greenhouse...
vital to the soil capacity in our ecosystem. Soil carbon is a carbonsink in regard to the global carbon cycle, playing a role in biogeochemistry, climate...
responsible for 45% of total AFOLU emissions. In addition to being a net carbonsink and source of GHG emissions, land plays an important role in climate...
store carbon and are highly efficient carbonsinks. They capture CO2 from the atmosphere by sequestering the carbon in their underlying sediments, in underground...
biological matter is digested, burns, or decays. Land-surface carbonsink processes, such as carbon fixation in the soil and photosynthesis, remove about 29%...
greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon emissions from tropical deforestation are accelerating. When forests grow they are a carbonsink and therefore have potential...
biological pump (or ocean carbon biological pump or marine biological carbon pump) is the ocean's biologically driven sequestration of carbon from the atmosphere...
Ten Gigatons - Carbon Removal Scale Up Challenge Game. The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal report. 2023. Land - the planet's carbonsink, United Nations...
needed] – due to larger carbon losses from soil organic matter and deadwood, indicating that the tropical forest carbonsink (at least in South Asia)...
atmospheric concentrations increase, carbon uptake also increases. However, higher temperatures and saturation of carbonsinks decrease that negative feedback...
climate due to the strength of the Southern Ocean as a global carbonsink and heat sink. For instance, global warming will reach 2 °C (3.6 °F) in all...
organic carbon (POC) through photosynthesis and chemoautotrophy (i.e. primary production). DIC increases with depth as organic carbon particles sink and are...
basin's forest is important for mitigating climate change in its role as a carbonsink. However, deforestation and degradation of the ecology by the impacts...
biomass that has been stored as methane and carbon dioxide in the permafrost, making the tundra soil a carbonsink. As global warming heats the ecosystem and...
Artisinal C-Sink Several biochar production and carbon credit standards define criteria for permissible biomass feedstocks for biochar carbon removal. For...
gradual accumulation of decayed plant material in a bog functions as a carbonsink. Bogs occur where the water at the ground surface is acidic and low in...
An important consideration regarding carbon sequestration is that forests can turn from a carbonsink to a carbon source if plant diversity, density or...
injected into the cycle. The terrestrial and ocean sinks have thus far absorbed half of the added carbon, and half has remained in the atmosphere primarily...
When these organisms die they sink to the ocean floor where their carbonate skeletons can form a major component of the carbon-rich deep sea precipitation...
C4 carbon fixation or the Hatch–Slack pathway is one of three known photosynthetic processes of carbon fixation in plants. It owes the names to the 1960s...
enhancing ecosystems, promoting carbon sequestration, and biodiversity conservation. Forestation acts as a carbonsink, absorbing billions of CO2 annually...
quantities of carbon dioxide, so negating their value as so-called 'carbonsinks' (stores of carbon). The carbonsinks “store more carbon per unit area...
Earth which cause climate change. The relevant greenhouse gases are mainly: Carbon dioxide, Methane, Nitrous oxide and the fluorinated gases bromofluorocarbon...
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