Carbon Pools
Go to Climate Change Overview Understanding Global Warming Carbon Pools Carbon Pools. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) beautifully illustrates the Earth's carbon stocks. Fig. 1 of "Annex Henry's Law" - hyperlink - is taken from the IPCC Carbon Cycle AR5 and shows a simplified scheme for the global carbon cycles. The carbon stocks indicated in the same figure are compactly represented in the diagram of the four Carbon Pools. Emissions. Carbon dioxide is released during plant respiration and this becomes 120,9 Gt C. annually. This also includes CO 2 released during forest fires. The sun is heating the oceans – most near equator – causing an emission of 78,4 Gt C per year. Sequestering. D uring photosynthesis the plants absorb carbon dioxide. On an annual basis it becomes 123 Gt Carbon (C). The oceans and sea ice – most in the North Atlantic – also absorb ca...