Schlesinger, Chapter 11 Vitousek, et al. 1986. Human appropriation of the products of photosynthesis. Throughout this course we have studied carbon cycling at the local scale of a forest, wetland, river, or ocean in order to compare relative rates of NPP, decomposition, and carbon accumulation among ecosystem types. Today, we are going to synthesize the fluxes of C from different ecosystems to look at the C dynamics of the whole planet. The movement of carbon is one of the most essential cycles on earth for several reasons.
Carbon based carbohydrates represent the energy currency on which all life on earth depends .
It s amazing to think that, with a continual supply of sunlight, a pool of atmospheric carbon, and autotrophic organisms like plants, earth has been transformed from a closed system to an open system with respect to energy. Using carbon based molecules, life has been able to maintain highly ordered systems that resist entropy and thermodynamic degradation for over 3.5 billion years. O2 gas provides an atmosphere with high redox potential that allows aerobic respiration to be such a dominant metabolic pathway on earth. These processes are as fundamental to the existence of life as we know it as you will find. It s no wonder why there is a lot of concern now for how humans may be screwing up the carbon balance.