The carbon cycle, as a biological process, encompasses the assimilation, transformation, and release of carbon by living organisms within the broader biogeochemical carbon flux. Primary producers fix inorganic carbon, predominantly as CO₂, into organic molecules via photosynthesis or chemosynthesis, forming the base of food webs. Heterotrophs transfer and oxidize this organic carbon through respiration, returning CO₂ to the environment. Decomposers mineralize dead biomass and organic detritus, generating CO₂ and, under anoxic conditions, methane. Biological mediation of carbon storage occurs in biomass, soils, sediments, and dissolved organic pools, tightly coupling the carbon cycle to energy flow, nutrient cycling, and ecosystem metabolism across terrestrial and aquatic systems.
Push a metal corer into a peatland and you pull up something remarkable: a dark, dense, sponge-like material made of partly decomposed plants. This peat is rich in carbon. In some places, that peat has been building up for ...
Environment
Apr 28, 2026
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Tropical forests are among the world's most important carbon sinks. A new study by the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the University of Vienna, and Brazil's National Institute for Amazonian Research suggests that even ...
Environment
Apr 28, 2026
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There is growing interest in the scientific community and private sector in biological approaches to marine carbon dioxide removal—strategies designed to enhance the ocean's natural ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere. ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 9, 2026
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In the ocean, a haze made from tiny bits of dead plants, animals, and microbes hangs in the upper reaches of the water. Each particle is just a fraction of a micrometer across, but together the carbon within these particles ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 3, 2026
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Throughout their lifetimes, healthy forests produce more oxygen than they use, while taking in greenhouse gases via plants and soils. This ecosystem-wide service, called carbon sequestration, regulates global climate and ...
Ecology
Feb 25, 2026
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Researchers at ETH Zurich have now discovered for the first time that large blackwater lakes in the extensive peatlands of the central Congo Basin are releasing ancient carbon. To date, climate researchers had assumed that ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 23, 2026
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314
On a cool spring morning in a northern forest, the ground feels soft underfoot. Mist hangs between the trunks, and the air smells of wet leaves and old humus; the slow alchemy that keeps a forest alive. Beneath the surface, ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 17, 2026
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Some fungi are wasteful, while others recycle—and this can determine how much carbon is stored in a forest. Researchers at Lund University have now revealed how fungi manage their mycelium, the network that builds the structure ...
Ecology
Feb 13, 2026
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An international team of scientists has discovered that a small, low-abundance protein plays a surprisingly big role in assembling carboxysomes—specialized bacterial microcompartments that enable efficient carbon fixation ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 12, 2026
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39
A new study reports that climate warming can increase soil carbon accumulation in boreal Sphagnum peatlands by boosting plant productivity, protecting iron, and inhibiting microbial decomposition. These responses contrast ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 11, 2026
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