Natural Carbon Sinks Research Articles

The Research on the Funding Barriers of the Development Wood Carbon Sequestration Materials Industry

Global warming caused by CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions has a direct impact of human existence, The current three sets of technological solutions corresponding to the global warming to develop low carbon economy such as improving energy efficiency and conservation, reducing the carbon content of energy, development and utilization of natural carbon sinks, are not only existence of selection bottleneck but also run hardly and cannot solve global warming in this century fundamentally. Wood carbon sequestration is a new global carbon pool based on technological innovation, combined with modern agriculture, created by means of industrialization. Wood carbon sequestration is not only a long-term carbon sequestration benefits storage body also can be a low-cost production resources or materials. To cultivate it to become an industry will not only become the new economic growth point for farmers to increase incomes, promote regional economic restructuring and industrial upgrading but also end the dependence of forest wood resources to human. This paper puts forward some corresponding countermeasures and suggestions on making reform on institutional level and the innovation of financial products to support the development of wood carbon sequestration materials industry, based on the financing obstacles to the development of wood carbon sequestration materials industry, form the significance of wood carbon sequestration materials development.

Linking phytoplankton community size composition with temperature, plankton food web structure and sea–air CO 2 flux

Data collected at open water stations (depth>400 m) in all major ocean basins in 2006–2008 are used to examine the relationship between the size structure of the phytoplankton community (determined by size fractionated chlorophyll filtration), temperature and inorganic nutrient availability. A significant relationship ( p<0.0005) was found between community size structure and temperature, with the importance of large cells in the community decreasing with increase in temperature. Although weaker than the temperature relationship, significant relationships were also noted between community cell size and DIN (nitrate, nitrite and ammonium: p=0.034) and phosphate ( p=0.031) concentrations. When the data were divided into two groups of equal size, representing the samples with the highest and lowest DIN/phosphate concentrations, respectively, no difference could be identified between the slopes of the lines representing the relationship between size structure and temperature. There was, however, a difference in the intercepts between the two groups. If the relationship between size and temperature was only a response to nutrient availability, we would expect that the response would be the strongest in the groups with the lowest nutrient concentrations. These results suggest that, in addition to a nutrient effect, temperature may also directly influence the size structure of phytoplankton communities. The size structure of the phytoplankton community in this study correlated to the magnitude of primary production, export production (determined after Laws et al., 2000) and integrated water column chlorophyll. Significant relationships were also found between mesozooplankton production (determined using the proxy of calanoid+cyclopoid nauplii abundance as a percentage of the total number of these copepods) and both temperature and phytoplankton size, with production being the lowest in the warmest waters where phytoplankton were the smallest. In the North Atlantic, export production and community size structure appear to be related to ocean uptake of CO 2 from the atmosphere. The reported results suggest that ocean warming may directly alter plankton community structure. This, in turn, may alter the structure of marine food webs and impact the performance of the open ocean as a natural carbon sink.

Soil carbon may be maintained under grazing in a St Lawrence Estuary tidal marsh

SUMMARYProduction of belowground organic matter is critical to sustainability of salt marshes. It plays a role in vertical soil accretion, a process essential for salt marshes to maintain their relative elevation and persist as sea levels rise. This paper examines belowground production and soil carbon of a high-latitude saltmarsh in the St Lawrence Estuary (Québec, Canada), which had been subjected to six years of sheep grazing. In the seventh year, without sheep, organic matter production in grazed and ungrazed sections was assessed by examining harvests of plant litter, end-of-season standing crop, and the roots and rhizomes present in in-growth cores. Excepting salinity, porewater chemistry varied little. The grazed marsh had higher soil carbon density and belowground production, yet lower aboveground biomass. Grazing reduces plant litter and increases solar exposure, soil temperature (at this latitude, soil remained frozen until April) and evapotranspiration, thus raising soil salinity and nitrogen demand, the latter a driver of root production. Grazing may not be detrimental to soil carbon storage. Permitting certain types of grazing on restored salt marshes previously drained for agriculture would provide economic incentive to restore tidal flooding, because the natural carbon sink provided in the recovered marsh would make these lands eligible for carbon payments.

A comparison of soil carbon pools and profiles in wetlands in Costa Rica and Ohio

Wetlands are large carbon pools and play important roles in global carbon cycles as natural carbon sinks. This study analyzes the variation of total soil carbon with depth in two temperate (Ohio) and three tropical (humid and dry) wetlands in Costa Rica and compares their total soil C pool to determine C accumulation in wetland soils. The temperate wetlands had significantly greater ( P < 0.01) C pools (17.6 kg C m −2) than did the wetlands located in tropical climates (9.7 kg C m −2) in the top 24 cm of soil. Carbon profiles showed a rapid decrease of concentrations with soil depth in the tropical sites, whereas in the temperate wetlands they tended to increase with depth, up to a maximum at 18–24 cm, after which they started decreasing. The two wetlands in Ohio had about ten times the mean total C concentration of adjacent upland soils ( e.g., 161 g C kg −1 were measured in a central Ohio isolated forested wetland, and 17 g C kg −1 in an adjacent upland site), and their soil C pools were significantly higher ( P < 0.01). Among the five wetland study sites, three main wetland types were identified – isolated forested, riverine flow-through, and slow-flow slough. In the top 24 cm of soil, isolated forested wetlands had the greatest pool (10.8 kg C m −2), significantly higher ( P < 0.05) than the other two types (7.9 kg C m −2 in the riverine flow-though wetlands and 8.0 kg C m −2 in a slowly flowing slough), indicating that the type of organic matter entering into the system and the type of wetland may be key factors in defining its soil C pool. A riverine flow-through wetland in Ohio showed a significantly higher C pool ( P < 0.05) in the permanently flooded location (18.5 kg C m −2) than in the edge location with fluctuating hydrology, where the soil is intermittently flooded (14.6 kg C m −2).

Declining Temporal Effectiveness of Carbon Sequestration: Implications for Compliance with the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change

Carbon sequestration is increasingly being promoted as a potential response to the risks of unrestrained emissions of CO2, either in place of or as a complement to reductions in the use of fossil fuels. However, the potential role of carbon sequestration as an (at-least partial) substitute for reductions in fossil fuel use can be properly evaluated only in the context of a long-term acceptable limit (or range of limits) to the increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration, taking into account the response of the entire carbon cycle to artificial sequestration. Under highly stringent emission-reduction scenarios for non-CO2 greenhouse gases, 450 ppmv CO2 is the equivalent, in terms of radiative forcing of climate,to a doubling of the pre-industrial concentration of CO2. It is argued in this paper that compliance with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (henceforth, the UNFCCC) implies that atmospheric CO2 concentration should be limited, or quickly returned to, a concentration somewhere below 450 ppmv. A quasi-one-dimensional coupled climate-carbon cycle model is used to assess the response of the carbon cycle to idealized carbon sequestration scenarios. The impact on atmospheric CO2 concentration of sequestering a given amount of CO2 that would otherwise be emitted to the atmosphere, either in deep geological formations or in the deep ocean, rapidly decreases over time. This occurs as a result of a reduction in the rate of absorption of atmospheric CO2 by the natural carbon sinks (the terrestrial biosphere and oceans) in response to the slower buildup of atmospheric CO2 resulting from carbon sequestration. For 100 years of continuous carbon sequestration, the sequestration fraction (defined as the reduction in atmospheric CO2 divided by the cumulative sequestration) decreases to 14% 1000 years after the beginning of sequestration in geological formations with no leakage, and to 6% 1000 years after the beginning of sequestration in the deep oceans. The difference (8% of cumulative sequestration) is due to an eflux from the ocean to the atmosphere of some of the carbon injected into the deep ocean.The coupled climate-carbon cycle model is also used to assess the amount of sequestration needed to limit or return the atmospheric CO2 concentration to 350–400 ppmv after phasing out all use of fossil fuels by no later than 2100. Under such circumstances, sequestration of 1–2 Gt C/yr by the latter part of this century could limit the peak CO2 concentration to 420–460 ppmv, depending on how rapidly use of fossilfuels is terminated and the strength of positive climate-carbon cycle feedbacks. To draw down the atmospheric CO2 concentration requires creating negative emissions through sequestration of CO2 released as a byproduct of the production of gaseous fuels from biomass primary energy. Even if fossil fuel emissions fall to zero by 2100, it will be difficult to create a large enough negative emission using biomass energy to return atmospheric CO2 to 350 ppmv within 100 years of its peak. However, building up soil carbon could help in returning CO2 to 350 ppmv within 100 years of its peak. In any case, a 100-year period of climate corresponding to the equivalent of a doubled-CO2 concentration would occur before temperatures decreased. Nevertheless, returning the atmospheric CO2concentration to 350 ppmv would reduce longterm sea level rise due to thermal expansion and might be sufficient to prevent the irreversible total melting of the Greenland ice sheet, collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet, and abrupt changes in ocean circulation that might otherwise occur given a prolonged doubled-CO2 climate. Recovery of coral reef ecosystems, if not already driven to extinction, could begin.

Energy policy and climate change

The problem of massive emissions of carbon dioxide (CO 2) from the burning of fossil fuels and their climatic impact have become major scientific and political issues. Future stabilization of the atmospheric CO 2 content requires a drastic decrease of CO 2 emissions worldwide. Energy savings and carbon sequestration, including CO 2 capture/storage and enhancement of natural carbon sinks, can be highly beneficial, although it is suggested that both economic and climatic feedbacks could nullify part of the gains achieved. Fossil fuels (coupled with CO 2 capture), and lower-carbon hydrogenated fuels such as natural gas are still expected to play an important role in the future. Nevertheless, stabilizing atmospheric CO 2 concentration in a growing world economy, now dependent on fossil fuels for 85% of its energy, will also require a vast increase in the supply of carbon-free power. Among these energy sources, hydropower and nuclear energy (operated under western safety and environmental standards) are the most readily available sources capable of supplying vast amount of energy at a competitive price. Wind power is also to be encouraged, as it is expected to approach the competitiveness threshold soon. The French example, where fossil fuel CO 2 emissions were cut by 27% in a matter of a few years (1979–1986) despite increasing energy consumption, suggests that implementing CO 2 stabilization is technically feasible at a competitive price.

Status of U.S. Geologic Carbon Sequestration Research and Technology

Mr. Beecy is Director, Office of Environmental Systems, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Fossil Energy. He is responsible for program planning of R&D on technologies to resolve environmental concerns and to address mitigation of climate change concerns, including DOE's Carbon Sequestration Program. Mr. Beecy also serves as the United States Representative to the Executive Committee of the International Energy Agency's Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme. Mr. Kuuskraa is the President of Advanced Resources International Inc., a firm that specializes on the geology, engineering, and economics of natural gas and oil supply. He has authored over 100 technical papers and reports on energy supply and economics. He recently participated in the President's Energy and Trade Missions to China, India, and South Africa. Carbon sequestration is a relatively new field of science and technology. However, interest in it has been growing rapidly over the past several years. In 1998, the Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy (DOE/FE) and Office of Science (DOE/OS) set forth their joint “road map” for carbon sequestration as an option for addressing climate change concerns. The road map identifies several alternatives for sequestering carbon including enhancing natural carbon sinks, capturing CO2 and storing it in geologic formations or the deep ocean, and converting CO2 to benign solid materials or fuels through biological or chemical processes. The DOE's Office of Fossil Energy, in partnership with industry, the International Energy Agency's Greenhouse Gas Research and Development Programme, and others, has under way a Carbon Sequestration Research and Development Program that addresses a broad range of sequestration options. In parallel and closely coordinated, the Office of Science has launched their Carbon Management Science Program. This paper focuses on program activities in the area of CO2 capture and storage in geologic formations. It summarizes the progress to date on DOE/FE …

Increases in Fluxes of Greenhouse Gases and Methyl Mercury following Flooding of an Experimental Reservoir

Experimental flooding of a boreal forest wetland caused the wetland to change from being a small, natural carbon sink, with respect to the atmosphere, of −6.6 g of C m-2 yr-1 to a large source of +130 g of C m-2 yr-1. This change was caused by the death of the vegetation, which eliminated the photosynthetic CO2 sink and stimulated the microbial production of CO2 and CH4 from decomposition of plant tissues and peat. Another type of microbial activity that increased was the methylation of inorganic mercury to the much more toxic methyl mercury (MeHg) form. The wetland was a source of MeHg prior to flooding and became an even larger source (39 fold) after flooding. MeHg concentrations in the water sometimes exceeded 2 ng L-1, with the average being 0.9 ng L-1 in the first 2 years after flooding. MeHg also increased in the flooded vegetation and peat, in lower food chain organisms, and in fish. Two recommendations, which should minimize both greenhouse gas production and MeHg production in reservoirs, can be made: (1) minimize the total area of land flooded (i.e., avoid flooding areas of low relief) and (2) minimize the flooding of wetlands, which contain larger quantities of organic carbon than uplands and are sites of intense production of MeHg.

Economic and political feasibility of international carbon offsets

Forests are important in the global carbon cycle, forming a major sink for carbon. Deforestation is a significant source of carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere. There is some scope to enhance natural carbon sinks, and therefore reduce net emissions of greenhouse gases, through afforestation and conservation of existing forests. Such initiatives may be implemented to “offset” emissions of greenhouse gases from other sources. This may be undertaken by private companies, or by governments as part of bilateral agreements or multilateral arrangements. International carbon offsets may be cost effective in terms of reduction of carbon emissions achieved, and may also be one way to mobilise private capital to fund forest conservation. It is argued here that theoretically the international offset of emissions may lead to a resource saving, and that forest conservation, as opposed to afforestation, may bring about many other benefits. However, such international contracts are unlikely to be feasible or make a major contribution to the control of greenhouse gases. The reasons for this are monitoring, enforcement and scientific uncertainties, and the implicit change in property rights involved in “selling” carbon sequestration rights.

Long-term strategies for mitigating global warming

This special issue reviews technological options for mitigating carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions. The options analyzed include efficiency improvements, renewable energies, clean fossil and zero-carbon energy technologies, carbon sequestration and disposal, enhancement of natural carbon sinks (halting deforestation, afforestation, and other sink enhancement options), and geo-engineering measures to compensate for increases in CO 2 concentrations. Reduction potentials, costs, and the relative contribution of individual options, as well as their limiting factors and possible timing of introduction and diffusion, are discussed. The study concludes with a discussion of methodological issues and of trade-offs and constraints for implementation strategies to mitigate anthropogenic sources of change in the global carbon cycle.

Soil and vegetation carbon pools in two community forests of Palpa district, Nepal

Quantification of carbon in any vegetation and soil type is a basic step for evaluating the carbon sequestration potential of an ecosystem. For quantification, soil samples from varying depths (0–20, 20–40, 40–60, 60-80 and 80–100 cm) of each soil profile were collected for each sample plot laid out in Jarneldhara and Lipindevi Thulopakho Community Forests (CFs) of Palpa district. Individual trees in the sample plots of both CFs were measured. Biomass of standing trees, poles and saplings were estimated indirectly from diameter at breast height (dbh) and total height by using allometric relationships, while the biomass of grass, herb and litter were calculated directly from field measurements. Above-ground and below-ground (root) carbon pools in Jarneldhara CF were found to be 36.6 ± 3.4 t ha-1 and 10.5 ± 1.0 t ha-1 , respectively; while those on Lipindevi Thulopakho CF were 40.2 ± 4 and 11.4 ± 1.1 t ha-1, respectively. Soil organic carbon pool in Jarneldhara and Lipindevi Thulopakho CF were 121.4 ± 7.4 and 94.6 ± 4.4 t ha-1, respectively. This indicates that CFs have high potential to offset large portion of carbon emission through sequestration into both soil and vegetation, and act as a natural carbon sink. Key words: Carbon pool; community forest; soil organic carbon; vegetation carbon; biomass DOI: 10.3126/banko.v20i2.4800 Banko Janakari Vol.20(2) 2010 pp.34-40

New seismic data concerning sediments and diapiric structures in Sigsbee Deep and upper continental slope, Gulf of Mexico : Ewing Maurice and John Antoine, 1966. Bull. Am. Ass. Petrol. Geol., 50 (3): 479–504.

Data collected at open water stations (depth>400 m) in all major ocean basins in 2006–2008 are used to examine the relationship between the size structure of the phytoplankton community (determined by size fractionated chlorophyll filtration), temperature and inorganic nutrient availability. A significant relationship (p<0.0005) was found between community size structure and temperature, with the importance of large cells in the community decreasing with increase in temperature. Although weaker than the temperature relationship, significant relationships were also noted between community cell size and DIN (nitrate, nitrite and ammonium: p=0.034) and phosphate (p=0.031) concentrations. When the data were divided into two groups of equal size, representing the samples with the highest and lowest DIN/phosphate concentrations, respectively, no difference could be identified between the slopes of the lines representing the relationship between size structure and temperature. There was, however, a difference in the intercepts between the two groups. If the relationship between size and temperature was only a response to nutrient availability, we would expect that the response would be the strongest in the groups with the lowest nutrient concentrations. These results suggest that, in addition to a nutrient effect, temperature may also directly influence the size structure of phytoplankton communities. The size structure of the phytoplankton community in this study correlated to the magnitude of primary production, export production (determined after Laws et al., 2000) and integrated water column chlorophyll. Significant relationships were also found between mesozooplankton production (determined using the proxy of calanoid+cyclopoid nauplii abundance as a percentage of the total number of these copepods) and both temperature and phytoplankton size, with production being the lowest in the warmest waters where phytoplankton were the smallest. In the North Atlantic, export production and community size structure appear to be related to ocean uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere. The reported results suggest that ocean warming may directly alter plankton community structure. This, in turn, may alter the structure of marine food webs and impact the performance of the open ocean as a natural carbon sink.