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.
An international study presents the first global assessment of blue carbon accumulated in the living parts of seagrass plants. According to the results, their leaves, rhizomes and roots store up to 40 million tons of carbon ...
Earth Sciences
Nov 5, 2025
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63
Thinning, the practice of removing some trees to promote the growth of others, is a common forestry management technique, but its effects on forest carbon dynamics vary greatly depending on the forest type.
Ecology
Nov 5, 2025
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25
A Peking University research team led by Wang Heyuan and Wang Kai at the Institute for Carbon Neutrality (ICN) used AI models to determine that the global land carbon sink has drastically shrunk due to an abrupt and extreme ...
Earth Sciences
Nov 4, 2025
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56
Forest ecosystems play a vital role in the global carbon cycle. While the significance of tree mycorrhizal fungi in this process is well-documented, the manner in which different types of tree mycorrhizae influence forest ...
Ecology
Nov 4, 2025
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19
Earthworms don't stop shaping soil processes when they die. A new study shows they can still help store carbon in the soil, even after death. "This is quite surprising," says lead author Tullia Calogiuri. "Most of our knowledge ...
Earth Sciences
Nov 3, 2025
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33
While annual cropping systems such as maize/soy rotation perpetuate soil organic carbon (SOC) loss, perennial crops have been found to contribute to SOC increases. However, most perennial crop studies have been short-term, ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Oct 28, 2025
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18
The towering peaks of the Southern Andes are not just shaping the skyline of South America—they are also quietly influencing Earth's atmosphere.
Permafrost thaw can stimulate the release of soil carbon, triggering a positive carbon-climate feedback that may be mediated by changes in soil phosphorus (P) availability.
Earth Sciences
Oct 24, 2025
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80
Peatlands make up just 3% of Earth's land surface but store more than 30% of the world's soil carbon, preserving organic matter and sequestering its carbon for tens of thousands of years. A new study sounds the alarm that ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 23, 2025
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98
The ocean's smallest engineers, calcifying plankton, quietly regulate Earth's thermostat by capturing and cycling carbon. However, a new review published in Science by an international team led by the Institute of Environmental ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 23, 2025
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