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A Hidden Loop In the Carbon Cycle Discovered

Posted by samzenpus on from the hot-and-heavy dept.

Googlesaysmysiteisdangerousanditisn't! writes "A recent article in Science says that researchers in China and the US have found massive carbon uptake in the world's deserts. The effects of this are huge. 35% of the Earth's land surface is desert, and the uptake equates to 5.2 billion tons of carbon sequestered each year. This is more than half of the carbon released by humans. In these 'dry oceans,' the grains of sand allow the carbon dioxide to enter and react with alkaline soil to become carbonates. Another scientist suspects that biotic desert crusts, alkaline soils, and increased precipitation may be driving the uptake."

3 of 310 comments (clear)

  1. At what point does ythis break down? by Dripdry · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ok. So they've found a massive carbon sink that was unaccounted for. Great!

    They also say that due to changing conditions, including increased precipitation, there is more uptake occurring.

    Does this process ever reach a point where it stops? Is there only so much carbon that can be converted/sequestered? If conditions change enough, will this huge carbon sink disappear rapidly, adding a HUGE amount of carbon to the atmosphere?

    This is fascinating, but it still feels to me like this situation could be as fragile as any others we've discovered around the globe.

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    1. Re:At what point does ythis break down? by cunamara · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why are you wasting your time with this lame argument? There is no human field of study that has comprehensive knowledge about its subject. Acknowledging that fact does not excuse people from taking whatever steps are available to them to reduce, stop or reverse damaging the only environment they have in which to live. If you wait for conclusive knowledge before acting, you'll never get out of bed.

  2. Something is not quite right here... by BlueParrot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If this is indeed the case it would seem a bit strange that it has not been detected before. I mean with all the climate change debate going on there has been quite close scrutiny of the estimates of CO2 going into and out of the atmosphere, so if this is as big a carbon sink as described it would have to mean that the other sinks ( i.e the ocean and the biosphere ) are less potent than previously assumed.