Natural Carbon Cycle

The natural earth system is a closed system with a constant carbon content. The following table shows the time duration of the release and storage in the individual spheres:
Sphere | Release | Storage |
Atmosphere | Immediately up to years | Short-term |
Biosphere | Days to years | Years to centuries |
Hyrosphere | Years to centuries | Decades to millennia |
Lithosphere | Million years | Million years |
Pedosphere | Years to decades | Decades to centuries |
Carbon Cycle under anthropogenic influence
Humans are changing the natural relationship between carbon emissions and carbon reductions

Development of the remaining CO2 in the atmosphere after an emission pulse

Results calculated by a range of coupled models:
– Line: the multi-model mean
– Shaded: the uncertainty interval (maximum model range)
5000 petagrams of carbon (PgC), or gigatonnes of carbon (GtC), are about 10 times the CO2 emitted so far since pre-industrial time
(Ciais et al., 2014, p.545)
Schematic representation of carbon fluxes between atmosphere, land, ocean and geological reservoirs

Source: IPCC AR6 WGI (Chapter 5; p 758)