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.
The ocean absorbs roughly a quarter of humanity's carbon dioxide emissions each year. Understanding how that happens, and how it might change, is essential for predicting our climate's future. To do that, scientists need ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 30, 2026
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Deploying ocean iron fertilization—a strategy for carbon dioxide capture—in higher latitudes rather than near the equator could reduce environmental impacts while still achieving removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 29, 2026
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Could taking plant biomass and burying it in the deep, anoxic parts of the ocean be a workable large-scale strategy for carbon sequestration? The concept has intrigued scientists for years, and now a recent international ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 28, 2026
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Most of the carbon released during Canada's record-breaking 2023 wildfire season came from burning soil and peat, rather than trees, according to new research from McMaster University.
Earth Sciences
Jul 27, 2026
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A new computer model is one of the first artificial intelligence tools to advance scientific discovery in agriculture and biogeochemistry and is 50 times more efficient than its predecessors, according to a study that offers ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jul 27, 2026
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Northern Eurasia contains about 20% of the world's forests and plays a crucial role in mitigating climate change by absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide, thereby acting as a major carbon sink. However, understanding the region's ...
Environment
Jul 26, 2026
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About 90% of the Aral Sea has dried up. The exposed sediments have already released enormous amounts of carbon dioxide (748 megatons) since 1960. However, through restoration, the lake could once again become a carbon sink. ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 22, 2026
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When most people hear the phrase "ocean acidification," they think of coral reefs, shellfish or declining fisheries. Those concerns are real. But while working on our recent research, I found myself asking a different question: ...
In the heart of the Congo Basin's Cuvette Centrale, a large depression that hosts the world's largest tropical wetland complex, lie two vast, shallow blackwater lakes, Lake Tumba and Lake Mai Ndombe. Together, they are roughly ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 14, 2026
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The interactions between microscopic algal cells and bacteria in the oceans play a pivotal role in the global carbon cycle. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now taken an important step toward deciphering the chemical language ...
Environment
Jul 14, 2026
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