A2

Lesson 11
Global warming
The carbon cycle in nature
Carbon is fundamental to the formation of complex
organic molecules such as carbohydrates , proteins , fats
and nucleic acids.

Carbon sinks
Atmospheric co2 is removed from the air permanently by
specific mechanisms .There are abiotic and biotic carbon
sinks in nature.

These are reservoirs where carbon is removed from the

atmosphere and locked up in organic or inorganic
compounds.
In the biotic part , carbon is removed by photosynthesis
and taken by the soil (humus)
In the abiotic part rocks as limestone and chalk , and
fossil fuels as coal , oil and natural gaz. Also oceans are
massive reservoirs of carbon dioxide and contains 50
times more dissolved carbon dioxide than that in the
atmosphere .

Phytoplanktons make photosynthesis , shells store carbon

in calcium carbonate and also coral reefs .

The Atlantic ocean absorb 25% of human produced

carbon each year .The southern ocean covers much
bigger area but absorbs only 9% of the carbon .Why?
Because of the water currents in the Atlantic ocean that
moves carbon rich water downwards and bring more
water up the depth to absorb more carbon . As well as the
water temperature which contributes in the increased
level of carbon absorption.

The quantity of carbon stored in the different carbon

sinks is measured in petagrams : 1 petagram is 105 g or 1
billion tonnes .
Around 110 petagrams are removed each year from the
atmosphere into the bodies of living organisms by
photosynthesis .
50 petagrams are returned to the atmosphere by
respiration of living organisms .
60 petagrams become part of the process of
decomposition
The carbon cycle is self regulating the amounts of
carbon released in respiration and other natural
processes and absorbed in photosynthesis remain in
balance so that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels remain
constant.
The enormous increase of the level of carbon dioxide
since the industrial revolution in the eighteenth and
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nineteenth centuries , coupled with the development of

the internal combustion engines and its use in cars , now
threatening the balance of the carbon cycle.
Green house gases are :
1. Carbon dioxide
2. Methane gas
3. Water vapour
4. Oxides of N
5. CFCs (propelants in aerosols , coolant in refrigerator

These gase with time have slowly carried up to the

stratosphere and enhance the green house effect or the
global warming .
Green house gases reduce the heat loss from the surface
of the earth. When infrared radiations reach the surface
of the earth they are absorbed by a short wave length ,
giving the feeling of heat on the surface of the earth , and
then radiates from the surface of the earth by a long
wave length. Some of these radiations are absorbed and
radiated back to the surface of the earth by green house
gas molecules in the atmosphere.Without green house
gases in the atmosphere The surface of the earth could
be like mars .
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Methane
It is a potent green house gas . It has a greater effect on
warming of the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, 72 times
more .
It is broken down high in the atmosphere in a series of
reactions that form carbon dioxide and water molecules.
Sources
1. Decay of organic materials by some kinds of bacteria
2. From the digestion of ruminant herbivores
3. From rice paddy fields
In rice fields , the fields are waterlogged and bacteria in
this water logged soil are releasing methane as they grow
. As levels of rice production have been increasing to feed
the increased world population , in addition number of
animals that we depend upon for food including cattle .
so the amount of methane in their digestion increased as
well .60% of the methane released in the atmosphere
now is due to human activities.

The IPCC (the intergovernmental panel on climate

change) estimate that 16% of the methane gas produced
by human activities is due livestock and dairy cows.
Solutions
1. Engineer new strains of grass which can be digested
more easily by cows
2. Keep cows alive , healthy giving milk for longer (older
cows produce more milk and less methane)
3. Give concentrates as food (prolong cows working
life) generating electricity needed to manufacture
concentrates produce carbon dioxide

Evidence that level of green house gases have changed

:
We can extrapolate the data on green house gases and
use them in models to make predictions about what will
happen to temperature in the future .Extrapolations from
the past cannot take into account what will happen in the
future.

1. From ice core , frozen isotopes : scientists drill deep

into the ice and then analyse the air trapped in
different layers records of the oxygen isotopes in
melting ice (proportion of O18 an O16) reflect the air
temperature at the time the ice layer was laid down.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide also can be measured . It
appears that 140 000 years ago the surface of the
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earth was about 6C cooler than it is today (ice age) .

and 120 000 years ago it was
1-2 C warmer than it is now . these warm periods
were called interglacials and since then we have had
another ice age and some warming .
2. Dendrochronology : tree ring dating , can tell us
about changes in the climate as counting the tree
rings give us an idea about the tree age and if the
rings are narrow and close , cells produced are small
and this means that conditions were difficult , in the
winter for ex. And the tree stops growing till the next
spring . but if conditions are favorable , plenty of
moisture , the new cells are large , the rings are big
and wide .these data are neither accurate reliable ,
nor valid .why ?
3. Data from coral reefs en be used to confirm
evidence from trees rings. As isotopes taken by coral
reefs vary as the sea temperature changes
4. Peat bogs : these are the most efficient carbon sink
as peat land plants carbon dioxide. Peat is soft ,
easily compressed , acidic , cool and anaerobic.it is a
brown material consist of partially decayed vegetable
matter forming a deposit . it is dry so can be used as
a fuel or as fertilizers . low levels of oxygen in bogs
prevent degradation of peat . Sample cores of peat
let us know the time at which plants and mosses
were grown , the pollen \moss record give an idea
about the climate and how it has changed .
How to increase data reliability

Wiggle matching graphs

Use of both dendrochronology and peat bog dating to
confirm radiocarbon dating
Results are compared to give a kind of calibration . Now
estimation of age makes the data more reliable
These data were used to make ICPP graph

More than 1200 temperature proxy records going back

1300years without using tree ring data and used two
statistical methods they found that the hockey stick
graph of ICPP was valid whether tree ring data were
used or not .
Evidence of increasing carbon dioxide
Data were collected from the Mauna Loa observatory
on Hawaii . the air is sampled continuously at the top of
7 meter tall towers and an hourly average of carbon
dioxide concentration is taken (with a number of other
readings).The air in the area is free from pollutants .The
records show that the level of carbon dioxide has
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increased from 315.98 ppmv in 1959 to 381.74 ppmv in

2006
NB

ppmv part per million by volume of dry air

Ice core data also show clear changes in carbon dioxide

concentration (Law Dome ice cores ice in the
Antractic)

Questions
1. Why is the data from Mauna Loa regarded as reliable
2. What is the overall percentage increase in the level
of carbon dioxide from 1959 to 2006 based on the
Mauna Loa data
3. Why was the original hockey stick graph produced by
the ICPP in 1998 challenge
End of lesson
Study well and good luck
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