1. GLOBE Carbon Cycle: The Carbon Cycle
University of New Hampshire: Rita Freuder, Lara Gengarelly, Mary Martin, Scott Ollinger, Sarah Sallade, Annette Schloss, Haley Wicklein
Czech Republic: Jana Albrechtova, Kateřina Čiháková, Zuzana Lhotakova, Barbora Semeráková, Premek Stych, Dana Votapkova  
GLOBE Program Office: Gary Randolph

2. Carbon: A building block of life
The most abundant element in living things
Accounts for 45-50% of the total mass of the biosphere.
Also present in the Earth’s, atmosphere, soil, oceans, and crust
C is in all living things
Pools and Fluxes/ Sources and Sinks
Time Scales
Greenhouse Effect
Units
Balance of Sources and Sinks/ Dynamic Equilibrium + why that is important

3. The Carbon Cycle

4. Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas
The Greenhouse Effect
Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas

6. The Greenhouse Effect (continued)

7. Changing Atmospheric Conditions
Level of Certainty: 100%
Annual Increase

8. Changing Atmospheric Conditions

9. Annual Global Chlorophyll Concentration

10. SeaWiFS Satellite Data
The Pulse of the Planet:
Estimated Chlorophyll Concentration
SeaWiFS Satellite Data
January 1998

11. SeaWiFS Satellite Data
The Pulse of the Planet:
Estimated Chlorophyll Concentration
SeaWiFS Satellite Data
July 1998

12. Atmospheric CO2 Over Geologic Time Scales
Vostok Ice Core CO2 Record
420,000 years ago to the present
CO2 concentration (ppmv)

13. Inter-Glacial Maximum
Atmospheric CO2 Over Geologic Time Scales
Atmospheric CO2 (ppm)
400, , , ,
Years Before Present
Vostok Ice Core CO2 Record
420,000 years ago to the present
150
200
250
300
350
Barnola et al. 1999
Present (2011)
400
Ice Core Data
Mauna Loa Record
Inter-Glacial Maximum
Glacial Minimum

14. Understanding the future of atmospheric CO2 is Critical
Projected Increases in CO2
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
550
600
650
700 CO 2
Concentration (ppmv)
Projected (2100)
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
Current (2011)
Vostok Record
IPCC IS92a Scenario
Law Dome Record
Mauna Loa Record
Understanding the future of atmospheric CO2 is Critical

15. Temperature Changes Mirror Changes in CO2

16. “Planet Earth Has Entered a NEW Era That Has No Historical Precedent”
Berrien Moore III
Chairman International Global Biosphere Program
Director Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space
“The Earth’s Climate System is an Angry Beast and We are Poking it with Sticks”
Wallace Broeker
Columbia University, Lamont Doherty Geological Observatory

17. Questions about the Carbon Cycle???

18. Mauna Loa