2023 Unlike a decomposing bison, biochar pulls carbon out of the earth’s carbon cycle. Carbon plays an essential role in biology because of its ability to form many bondsup to four per atomin a. Between 10 15 and 10 17 grams (1,000 to 100,000 million metric tons) of carbon move through the fast carbon cycle every year. 2021 More subtly, microplastics could be messing with the carbon cycle: Phytoplankton absorb carbon and are eaten by zooplankton, whose fecal pellets sink to the sea floor, sequestering greenhouse gas from the atmosphere. The fast carbon cycle is largely the movement of carbon through life forms on Earth, or the biosphere. 2023 The reason it’s included here is that healthy ecosystems can mean a healthy carbon cycle. Corinne Purtillstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 7 Feb. 2021 In addition, whales indirectly affect the ocean carbon cycle through a less majestic but critically important byproduct: their poop. 2022 What does this mean for the carbon cycle? - Matt Simon, Wired, 12 Nov. Joanna Lentini, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Mar. 2023 Researchers also speculate that salamanders contribute to the carbon cycle of the forest by consuming insects that shred and eat leaves because shredding releases carbon into the atmosphere, salamanders may be doing their part to slow climate change. Katherine Kornei, Scientific American, 6 Mar. 2023 Gaining a better understanding of the timing and duration of Miyake events demanded a better accounting of radiocarbon moving though the global carbon cycle, Pope and his colleagues realized.

Recent Examples on the Web Methane measurements from space have weaknesses, including difficulty distinguishing fresh plumes from gas already in the air, says Xin Lan, a carbon cycle scientist at the Earth System Research Laboratories of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Easy carbon cycle diagram