Consulting my environmental chemistry textbook (_Chemistry of the
Environment_, Thomas G. Spiro and William M. Stigliani, Prentice Hall: New
Jersey (1996)) I found a more recent reference to the carbon cycle which
answers three of your four questions. p. 127 has a figure from NASA and J.
T. Houghton et al., eds. (1990). _Climate Change: The IPCC Scientific
Assessment_ (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press). If I'm reading
the figure correctly, the answers to your questions are (a Tg is 10^12 g):
amt C (10^3 Tg) annual change (10^3 Tg)
atmosphere 740 3
land biomass 550 2
soil 1500
fossil fuels 10000
ocean surface 1000 2
ocean biomass 3
deep waters 38000
The concentration of CO2 in air at ground level is approx. 350 ppm (parts
per million) (p. 119). This varies seasonally with plant respiration (p.
126). Humans are contributing the the concentration of CO2 in the
atmosphere through combustion of fossil fuels and deforestation at a rate
of 0.5 - 1 ppm/yr.
BTW, there was an excellent NOVA/Frontline two hour special on global
warming on PBS a couple of weeks ago. The video is available for purchase
on their web site, pbs.org.
To start to answer your fourth question, the concentration of CO2 and CH4
in the earth's part atmosphere has been estimated from Antarctic ice cores
(p. 130 and Houghton ref.)
I hope this helps.
Keenan
----Original Message-----
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 05:36:29 -0000
From: "glenn morton" <mortongr@flash.net>
Subject: Re: Atmospheres
- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Stein A. Stromme" <stromme@mi.uib.no>
To: "glenn morton" <mortongr@flash.net>
Cc: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2000 6:34 AM
Subject: Re: Atmospheres
> [glenn morton]
>
> | I have been doing some research into the composition of the ancient
> | atmospheres.
>
> Glenn, as always, your posts are very interesting. In particular, I
> take the opportunity to thank you for the Waco conference notes.
>
> Perhaps you (or someone else on the list) know answers to the
> following questions about the carbon cycle:
>
> How much carbon is there on earth? How is it distributed between CO2
> in atmosphere and oceans, biomass in ocean and on land, fossil fuels,
> and other forms? Can one quantify the fluctuations and flows between
> these forms? And, as your expressed interest above indicates, the
> history?
While kind of old, there is an article on the carbon cycle in the Sept.
1970
Scientific American.
As to the distribution of carbon in the biosphere this also is an old
source
I have. The main change to this over the years is the discovery of bacteria
deep in the earth whose mass might outweigh that of above ground life. I
can't find it right now but I think there are 10-100 times more living
matter in bacteria below the ground than above. This would multiply the
living things category by that amount.
petroleum nonreservoir 200 x 10^18 g carbon
Petroleum reservoir 1 x 10^18 g carbon
Coal 15 x 10^18 g carbon
Carbonate rocks 51,000 x 10^18 g carbon
living things .3 x 10^18 g carbon
J.M. Hunt, "Distribution of Carbon in Crust of Earth," Bull. AAPG, Nov.
1972, p. 2273-2277. p.2274
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