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.
A new regional assessment shows that Southeast Asia is a major net source of greenhouse gases, with land-use change and rising fossil fuel use overwhelming natural carbon sinks, reservoirs that store carbon-containing chemical ...
Earth Sciences
Dec 23, 2025
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Marine bacteria are key to determining whether carbon is recycled near the ocean surface or transported to deeper waters, but many operate in constant threat of being infected by viruses called phages, and mutate to fend ...
Ecology
Dec 19, 2025
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29
Globally, soils contain three times as much carbon as exists in the atmosphere and all plants, combined. Which means that understanding how soil microbes recycle organic materials—sometimes sending CO2 back into the atmosphere, ...
Environment
Dec 17, 2025
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90
A new study provides evidence that the ocean may have absorbed as much as 15% (0.3–0.4 Pg C yr-1) more CO2 than previously thought, requiring a re-think of future CO2 flux assessments and global climate models.
Earth Sciences
Dec 16, 2025
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21
While scientists have long known that iron oxide minerals help lock away enormous amounts of carbon—sequestering it from the atmosphere—a new Northwestern University study now reveals exactly why these minerals are such powerful ...
Earth Sciences
Dec 15, 2025
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From tiny streams to gigantic rivers like the Mississippi—microbes in sediments work tirelessly to maintain key biogeochemical cycles. However, as temperatures rise, they tend to operate frequently in stress mode. This is ...
Ecology
Dec 10, 2025
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For the first time, scientists have resolved extremely intense tropical cyclones and their effect on the ocean carbon cycle in a global Earth system model. Using two category-4 hurricanes in the North Atlantic as examples, ...
Earth Sciences
Dec 10, 2025
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30
A research team led by Prof. Sun Chaomin from the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS) has unveiled the crucial role of viruses in deep-sea carbon cycling and microbial community structure. Their ...
Ecology
Dec 9, 2025
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23
The carbon cycle in our oceans is critical to the balance of life in ocean waters and for reducing carbon in the atmosphere, a significant process to curbing climate change or global warming.
Earth Sciences
Dec 5, 2025
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56
In a step toward better understanding how the ocean sequesters carbon, new findings from UC Santa Barbara researchers and collaborators challenge the current view of how carbon dioxide is "fixed" in the sunless ocean depths. ...
Earth Sciences
Dec 1, 2025
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