Carbon cycling refers to the set of biogeochemical processes that regulate the transformation, transport, and storage of carbon among major Earth system reservoirs, including the atmosphere, terrestrial biosphere, oceans, and lithosphere. It encompasses autotrophic carbon fixation, heterotrophic respiration, decomposition, sedimentation, weathering, and anthropogenic fluxes such as fossil fuel combustion and land-use change. Research on carbon cycling quantifies fluxes and pool sizes, characterizes feedbacks between carbon reservoirs and climate, and employs observational networks, isotopic tracers, and Earth system models to constrain budgets, residence times, and perturbation responses across temporal scales from diurnal to geologic.
Rising stream temperatures may be weakening the foundation of river food webs by altering how carbon moves through these watery ecosystems. In a new study published in the journal Ecosphere, researchers from Northern Arizona ...
Ecology
10 hours ago
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Bottom fishing can release CO₂ from the seabed, but the consequences for the climate are not straightforward. New research, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, shows that disturbing the seabed sets in motion multiple ...
Environment
Apr 16, 2026
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Unfortunately for science fiction fans, desert worlds outside our solar system are unlikely to host life, according to new research from the University of Washington. Scientists show that an Earth-sized planet needs at least ...
Astrobiology
Apr 15, 2026
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Organic soils cover less than 9% of Norway's land area, and about 65,000 hectares are currently used as agricultural land. Emissions from these areas are presently estimated at more than 2 million tons of CO₂ equivalents ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 15, 2026
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Decomposition of dead leaves in Veluwe forests has declined by tens of percent since the turn of the century. Meteorologists from Wageningen University & Research discovered this in an analysis of long-term measurements. ...
Ecology
Apr 13, 2026
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In a three-year project, researchers at NIBIO have tested how biochar affects potato yields and soil quality under Norwegian conditions. The results show that biochar has little effect on yield, but that it may offer other ...
Ecology
Apr 10, 2026
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13
A shutdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) could trigger a substantial release of stored ocean carbon into the atmosphere over hundreds of years, according to a new study that simulated such a collapse ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 8, 2026
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234
It transports far more than 100 times as much water as all of the Earth's rivers combined: The Antarctic Circumpolar Current rushes around the southern continent unhindered by land masses and is therefore a fundamental component ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 6, 2026
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62
In a first-of-its-kind study, a team of researchers led by geoscientist Michael Rawlins at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has shown in fine-grained detail what happens when Arctic permafrost thaws. Focusing on a ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 1, 2026
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Rising sea levels are contributing to a phenomenon called "ghost forests," which are groups of dead and dying standing trees that have been drowned by intruding saltwater. And all along the eastern U.S. where there used to ...
Ecology
Mar 26, 2026
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