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.
In a comment published in Nature Climate Change, Mark Bradford, the E.H. Harriman Professor of Soils and Ecosystem Ecology, and Yale School of the Environment research scientists Sara Kuebbing and Alexander Polussa, Ph.D., ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 29, 2025
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UC Riverside researchers have discovered a piece that was missing in previous descriptions of the way Earth recycles its carbon. As a result, they believe that global warming can overcorrect into an ice age.
Earth Sciences
Sep 25, 2025
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A research team from the Institute of Applied Ecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a novel framework to evaluate the soil microbial carbon pump (MCP), offering new insights into long-term carbon sequestration ...
Ecology
Sep 25, 2025
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Between a third and half of all soil carbon on Earth is stored in peatlands, says Tom and Marie Patton Distinguished Professor Joel Kostka. These wetlands—formed from layers and layers of decaying plant matter—span from the ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 18, 2025
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Winter climate change is affecting the carbon exchange of northern coniferous forests, but the response depends upon reindeer grazing, according to a new study from the University of Oulu, Finland. The study, published in ...
Environment
Sep 17, 2025
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A study examining the effects of higher temperatures on soil shows that warming alone does not increase levels of carbon dioxide emitted from the soil. Instead, higher temperatures combined with more added carbon—and more ...
Ecology
Sep 16, 2025
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A new study led by the U.S. Forest Service, with Chapman University as a key senior collaborator, published in Nature Communications, suggests Earth's own tropical soils may contribute to climate change as global warming ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 16, 2025
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Typically, plants rely on the Calvin-Benson-Bassham (CBB) cycle to convert carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to usable organic matter for growth. Although this cycle is the main pathway for carbon fixation in all plants on ...
Rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are known to raise temperatures in Earth's atmosphere. But slow feedback processes, including heat storage in the ocean and changes in the carbon cycle, mean that sometimes, such temperature ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 15, 2025
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The global demand for wood-based products is constantly increasing, creating a challenge for the logging industry. In an attempt to keep up in a sustainable manner, the industry replaces logged areas with tree farms and nurseries ...
