1answer.
Ask question
Login Signup
Ask question
All categories
  • English
  • Mathematics
  • Social Studies
  • Business
  • History
  • Health
  • Geography
  • Biology
  • Physics
  • Chemistry
  • Computers and Technology
  • Arts
  • World Languages
  • Spanish
  • French
  • German
  • Advanced Placement (AP)
  • SAT
  • Medicine
  • Law
  • Engineering
ziro4ka [17]
3 years ago
12

How does the carbon cycle affect climate change and global warming on our planet? (Think about the different ways that carbon is

released into the atmosphere/extracted from the different reservoirs)
Biology
1 answer:
Lilit [14]3 years ago
6 0

Answer:

Explanation:

The amount of global warming will depend on the magnitude of future emissions, which, in turn, depends on how society grows and develops. The rate of warming will also depend on how sensitive the climate is to increased atmospheric greenhouse gases.

Yet climate change also depends on an under-appreciated factor known as “carbon-cycle feedbacks”. Accounting for uncertainties in carbon-cycle feedbacks means that the world could warm much more – or a bit less – than is commonly thought.

The carbon cycle is the collection of processes that sees carbon exchanged between the atmosphere, land, ocean and the organisms they contain. “Feedbacks” refer to how these processes could change as the Earth warms and atmospheric CO2 concentrations rise.

The commonly used warming projections – those highlighted in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment reports – include a single best-estimate of carbon-cycle feedbacks. But they do not account for the large uncertainties in these estimates.

These uncertainties are “one of the dominant sources” of divergence between different model projections, according to Dr Ben Booth and colleagues at the Met Office Hadley Centre.

Climate campaigners, such as Greta Thunberg, have also expressed concern that climate projections typically do not fully incorporate the potential range of carbon-cycle feedbacks.

This article explores the implications of carbon-cycle feedback uncertainties by examining a number of modelling studies conducted by scientists over the past decade. These studies give a similar central estimate of carbon-cycle feedbacks to those used in IPCC projections.

But, at the high end, the results show these feedbacks could push atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases much higher – meaning more warming – from the same level of emissions.

Analysis for this article shows that feedbacks could result in up to 25% more warming than in the main IPCC projections.

Importance of carbon-cycle feedback uncertainties

Today, around half of the CO2 emitted by humans remains in the atmosphere, with the remainder absorbed by the oceans and land. However, as the Earth warms this is expected to change. For example, warming reduces the amount of CO2 absorbed by surface ocean waters and the amount of carbon sequestered in soils. It can also accelerate tree death and the risk of wildfires. Thawing permafrost may release additional carbon into the atmosphere. Overall, the carbon cycle is expected to weaken as a result of climate change, leading to more emissions remaining in the atmosphere and less being absorbed by the land and oceans. All of these processes introduce uncertainty when translating future CO2 emissions into changes in atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

Changes in carbon cycle behavior as the Earth warms is an example of a climate feedback – a self-reinforcing change to the Earth’s temperature from a secondary factor. Not all of these feedbacks will necessarily act to increase temperature, however. CO2 fertilisation effects can lead to additional vegetation growth, sequestering more carbon. Nitrogen cycle changes can also enhance land uptake of carbon. Dynamic vegetation changes in response to a warming climate – which account for potential vegetation shifts as regional climate change – also have important, but uncertain effects on the carbon cycle.

You might be interested in
What is one defining feature of a prokaryotic cell?
aev [14]
<span>C) Nucleoid
Hope this helps. c:</span>
8 0
3 years ago
While plant and animal cells have structural similarities, they also differ in a few ways, including in shape. Plant cells tend
vovangra [49]

Because many of the organells in the different cells tend to give the cells their shape including the cytoplasm.

7 0
3 years ago
30 points!
Olin [163]
It's E, sperm cells.
7 0
3 years ago
Read 2 more answers
The female portion of the flower is the
Reil [10]
The answer to your question is A carpel
6 0
3 years ago
What kind of molecule if formed when glucose and fructose are combined?
s2008m [1.1K]

Disaccharide is formed when glucose and fructose are combined

7 0
3 years ago
Read 2 more answers
Other questions:
  • The baltic sea has ____________ because of ______________.
    13·2 answers
  • BRAINLIESTTT ASAP!
    11·2 answers
  • Why do cells perform mitosis?
    9·2 answers
  • Are enzymes used up after they do their job of helping build a molecule or helping breakdown a molecule...or are they used again
    13·1 answer
  • Where on the neuron are the incoming signals summed to determine whether or not an action potential is fired?
    13·1 answer
  • Which of the following diseases is not explained by Germ theory
    12·2 answers
  • Describe the connection between soil quality and water quality.
    9·1 answer
  • Its science! Give at least three sentences please and thank ya ill give brainliest Explain how precipitation happens. Use comple
    13·1 answer
  • What is a polar molecule?
    13·2 answers
  • When the body uses nonspecific immune defenses, how is the body defending itself?
    10·1 answer
Add answer
Login
Not registered? Fast signup
Signup
Login Signup
Ask question!