All the carbon released into our atmosphere contributes to the rise of greenhouse gases. The carbon from costal ecosystems is referred to as Blue Carbon. Most of the carbon on Earth is cycled through the ocean and coastal areas. These wet environments help to contain carbon and slow the increase of green house gasses in our atmosphere.
Coastal ecosystems like mangroves, tidal marshes, and seagrass meadows slow down the greenhouse gases from increasing by absorbing and containing them. These area’s are more efficient than any other ecosystem at containing carbon. Other’s like tropical forests, boreal forests, and temperate forests all fall behind by a huge amount. The carbon is stored in the soil of the area and remain there for long periods of time. Graphs on the differences in speed and containment ability will be shown below and can be found at the carboninitiative.com website
Without these natural carbon containers the efforts to lower carbon emissions would become drastically more difficult. The ecosystems have been brought up before in discussions on how to deal with our greenhouse gas problem. One of the most sensible ideas is to protect them the best we can. These important natural carbon containers have been greatly affected by human activity in a destructive manner. They should be protected by law against humans and restored. It is estimated that up to 67% of mangroves, at least 35% of tidal marshes, and 29% of seagrass meadows have been lost on a global scale.
The other difference between the natural carbon cycle and human-induced climate change is that the latter is rapid. This means that ecosystems have less chance of adapting to the changes that will result and so the effects
The boreal forests store carbon which controls the rate of global warming caused by human activities. The process is natural through photosynthesis where by the trees and
Anthropogenic activity has led to greatly increased emissions of greenhouses gases. Increased temperatures, acidification and stratification are all affected by increased carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations. These symptoms of climate change have direct and indirect effects on to marine ecosystems, all of which start at the major primary producers of the oceans: phytoplankton.
Carbon sinks is places that take and keep carbon.(1) The loss of a carbon sink can cause an increase in the greenhouse gases by the ocean floor, the boreal forests, the oceans plants, and coral reefs.(1) Climate Change can cause the loss of a sink, for example millions of years ago the climate back then was hotter, and the seas were more leveled. But then it became the exact opposite, the climate got colder, and the seas got lower.(1)
Why start something if you can’t finish it? Because, we cut down greenhouse gasses because we started using more natural gas.It would also allow the technologies that we would need time to develop, and become great, magnificent even, and popular. And since jobs and money have been tight, people are buying less. These are my three reasons to support my claim. I think that the U.S. should not make laws on climate change right away. Climate change is a very serious issue but, we won’t be able to start and stop it with the technology that we have. Also if the U.S will do something about climate change, then so might others. Yet, these gases are dangerous risks to the world's businesses, its environment and the health of all people. We have increased our demand of burning fossil fuels.
Humans are polluting our atmosphere causing the Greenhouse Effect. What’s the Greenhouse Effect? “The Greenhouse Effect can be visualized as follows: imagine that Earth has been encircled by a giant glass sphere. The heat of the sun penetrates through the glass. Some of the heat is absorbed by the Earth, and some is radiated back towards space. The radiated heat reaches the glass sphere and is prevented from dispersing any further”(Global Warming The Facts). This makes the heat bounce back towards the Earth, which heats it up tremendously.
Climate change or colloquially known as global warming, now pose a new threat to civilization as the levels of greenhouse gases (GHG) are soaring to new levels. The most significant contributor to greenhouse gasses would be Carbon Dioxide (Co2). The levels of Carbon Dioxide (Co2) gas have risen to levels civilization has not seen before. As such, the effects of these levels are not known to civilization as data gathered from the ice cores drilled in the Antarctica only shows data up to 650,000 years ago. However we can conclude that present CO2 concentrations are higher compared to any time in the last 650,000 years (IPCC 2007). Current carbon dioxide concentrations are hovering around 389 parts per million (ppm) as of September 2011,
Recent works by the Ramsar Convention’s Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP), states that there are evidences showing importance and under-estimated role of wetlands in both carbon storage and the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere.(2) significant amount of carbon dioxide is emitted through degradation of wetlands .
Much like the glass of a greenhouse, gases in our atmosphere sustain life on Earth by trapping the sun 's heat. The Earth’s atmosphere contains several different gases that act like a blanket, keeping the Earth warm. Water vapour and some trace gases like CO2, CH4 (methane), O3 (ozone), N2O (nitrous oxide), are “IR active”, i.e. they absorb heat energy, and stop the warmth from escaping into space. Without the entrapment of heat, the earth’s mean temperature would be -180 C and life, as we know it today, would not be possible. These gases are present in the atmosphere in tiny quantities compared to the amounts of oxygen and nitrogen. But even a small change in the concentration of these gases may create an effect that could change our
The carbon cycle on Earth is essentially how all organisms maintain life on our planet. According to the article “The Carbon Cycle and The Earth’s Climate,” carbon is stored inside our Earth and is released in our atmosphere, plants then combine this element with sunlight and water to go through the process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis allows plants to form carbohydrates that store energy and this energy is later used to carry out life functions. Photosynthesis is also responsible for other organisms to carry out their life functions as well because the byproduct it produces is oxygen. The carbon cycle is not only accountable for making byproducts that organisms need to live, it is also responsible for maintaining the climate on the planet. CO2 is a greenhouse gas that traps infrared radiation heat in our atmosphere, it maintains temperatures on Earth so that it never gets too cold or too hot for organisms to maintain life (Columbia University). The Carbon Cycle is responsible for maintaining temperatures on our planet but it does need help from living organisms to aid with the process. According to the article “What are Phytoplankton,” organisms such as Phytoplankton are responsible for the transfer of carbon dioxide from our atmosphere to our oceans, Phytoplankton take CO2 from the atmosphere absorb it and either get eaten by other organisms or fall to the ocean floor. This process takes greenhouse gasses from our atmosphere and puts it in the depths of our
The United States releases twenty tons of carbon monoxide per person per year. Carbon Monoxide release is a result of burning fossil fuels with an insufficient amount of oxygen that causes the formation of carbon monoxide that pollutes our environment. Everyday fuel is burnt by cars, airplanes, large factories and manufacturing plants. This is causing a very large and deadly problem for our environment. When gases used on earth are released into the atmosphere they act as a blanket and trap radiation that is then redirected to earth. This concept is called the Greenhouse Effect (Bad Greenhouse, 1).
`Mangrove forests function both as an atmospheric CO2 sink and a source of ocean carbon. They are important in the effort to slow down global warming. (E. McLeod and R.V. Salm, Managing Mangroves for Resilience to Climate Change, IUCN, 2006) `
The earth’s climate is predicted to change because human activities are altering the chemical composition of the atmosphere through the buildup of greenhouse gases –– primarily carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The heat-trapping property of these gases is undisputed. Although uncertainty exists about exactly how earth’’s climate responds to these gases, global temperatures are rising. Go to the Emissions section for much more on greenhouse gases.
Sediment Carbon sequestered in wetlands and the magnitude of sediment that sequesters the C may increase (Chmura et al 2003) because wetlands have the ability to contain a large amount of C without saturation in response to sea level rise if the ecosystem health is maintained (Mckee et al 2007).
Biogeochemical cycles are “processes by which matter cycles from the living world to the nonliving physical environment and back again,” which include the carbon, water, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus cycles (Raven et al. 59). Trees and other plants serve as important factors that remove carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from the environment. As trees are being increasingly logged, the amount of carbon dioxide that can be removed from the atmosphere is declining. Thus, deforestation has altered the balance of the carbon cycle, as more carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere at a higher rate than it can be withdrawn from the atmosphere. Due to this higher concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide from deforestation, global climate changes such as