Recent Past and Future of the Global Carbon Cycle
-
Published:January 01, 2001
abstract
The global carbon cycle has been affected by four major perturbations owing to human activities on land, and global temperature change since the year 1700. The cycle has been, and continues to be, forced by global emissions from fossil-fuel burning, land-use change, agricultural fertilization of croplands, organic sewage discharges, and a slight temperature rise. The atmospheric carbon- dioxide (CO2) change in the past 300 years, as computed from our model analysis, agrees well with the observed increase. The anthropogenic perturbations on land have resulted in an increased delivery of carbon to the coastal ocean and changes in...
Figures & Tables
Contents
Geological Perspectives of Global Climate Change

Access A Broad Range of Paleoclimatic Studies. Current debates regarding potential man-induced modification of climate make this volume especially timely. Introductory sections address the major and minor physical controls, or drivers, that affect Earth's climate. Several chapters describe the naturally occurring range of variation of climatic conditions and illustrate past changes in global temperatures. Case studies show how ancient temperature conditions are determined, as well as new techniques that have significant potential as proxies for assessing paleoclimates. Several chapters demonstrate the magnitude and length of duration of numerous temperature variations, which occurred during geologic time periods.