where much of the world's carbon is stored?

On Earth, most carbon is stored in rocks and sediments, while the rest is located in the ocean, atmosphere, and in living organisms. These are the reservoirs, or sinks, through which carbon cycles.

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Zac Kayler, Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, US Forest Service, Albany, CA.Maria Janowiak, Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, US Forest Service, Houghton, MI.Chris Swanston, Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, US Forest Service, Houghton, MI.

This topic page was developed using information from the report Considering Forest and Grassland Carbon in Land Management (WO-GTR-95)

Carbon is one of the most important elements found on Earth. The carbon cycle supports all life by transferring carbon between living things and the environment. Plants take up carbon dioxide (CO2) and release oxygen (O2) during photosynthesis, which transfers carbon to their stems, roots, and leaves as they grow. When leaves fall and decompose or when plants die, the carbon that was stored in plants is released through respiration or combustion and transferred back to the atmosphere or to the soil. Because of these processes, forests and other natural ecosystems can store considerable amounts of carbon and act as an important global carbon sink. Carbon stored in U.S. forests and associated wood products increased by more than 600 million metric tons in 2014, offsetting a substantial amount of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels (1).

Across the globe, carbon is stored in different places and in different forms. The amount of carbon stored in a particular system is called a “stock” or a “pool”. The Earth’s largest carbon stock is found within the continental crusts and upper mantle of the Earth, a large portion of which is sedimentary rock formed over millions of years (2).  Oceanic carbon is the next largest stock; over 95% of oceanic carbon is mainly present in the form of inorganic dissolved carbon, although only 900 gigatons of carbon (GtC) is available for exchange in the surface ocean. The atmosphere, although a relatively smaller carbon stock containing 839 GtC, still plays a very important role as it contains carbon mainly in the form of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Soils store approximately 1,325 GtC in the top few feet and perhaps as much as 3,000 GtC in total when deeper depths are included (3). In addition, permafrost (frozen soil) stores a large pool of carbon that is climatically protected from decomposition (4)(5), although more and more of this pool is becoming available as the average global temperature rises (6)(7).

Figure: Global carbon stocks (carbon stored in pools), shown in gigatons.

Forests take up carbon through photosynthesis and this carbon is subsequently allocated above and belowground, contributing to the global forest stock. Forests account for 92% of all terrestrial biomass globally, storing approximately 400 GtC (8), but this is not homogenously distributed across the Earth. Different forest types store different amounts of carbon, and much of this variation is related to the climate found in a particular part of the world. Warm tropical regions tend to store much more carbon in the above ground components compared to belowground while the cool regions of the boreal forest have enormous belowground carbon stores.

Figure: Carbon (Gt C) stored in ecosystems (based on Scharlemann et al., 2014).

Carbon is exchanged between different stocks in the land, ocean, and atmosphere. This means that carbon in many stocks, whether global or local, can be quite dynamic. Carbon that enters or leaves a stock is referred to as a flux, and the average rate at which carbon flows through a stock is called carbon turnover. The turnover of carbon within ecosystems across the globe gives an idea of where carbon might be most vulnerable to release as CO2 to the atmosphere. Knowledge of turnover within ecosystems can inform management decisions that affect the rate of carbon turnover, ultimately influencing the flux of carbon into and out of ecosystems.

Figure: Average ecosystem turnover times (years) of different terrestrial carbon pools.

The amount of carbon stored in the Earth’s atmosphere is miniscule compared to the amount stored in oceans, soils, and geologic formations. Small additions to the atmosphere over a long time have an enormous effect on the global carbon cycle. The start of the industrial revolution nearly 300 years ago, marked the beginning of the period during which human (anthropogenic) activities moved large amounts of carbon from different terrestrial and geologic stocks to the atmosphere. Emissions from fossil fuel use and land use change have been increasing over the last three centuries and currently result in a net addition of approximately 9 GtC per year to the atmosphere. These anthropogenic fluxes have led to a 19-36% shift of carbon out of the Earth’s gas, oil, and coal reservoirs, carbon that had been essentially locked away from the carbon cycle for millions of years but is now expected to remain in the atmosphere for decades to centuries. This contribution of fossil fuel carbon to the atmosphere can be considered a net addition to the contemporary carbon cycle and a driver of climate change.

Figure: Global carbon cycle. Carbon pool numbers (Gt C) are denoted in (parentheses), and flux numbers (Gt C per year) are associated with arrows.

Climate change is already having an impact on ecosystems across the world, and many of these changes are expected to continue or accelerate in the future (10, 11). Opportunities to mitigate atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions is driving interest in managing carbon within ecosystems (12), highlighting the important role forests and grasslands play in sequestering CO2 and providing a source of renewable energy. At the same time, changes in the Earth’s climate system are altering forests in dramatic ways, which can also have consequences for the emission of carbon and other greenhouse gases.

Warmer temperatures and extreme weather (13, 14) have the potential to directly increase the frequency and severity of many types of disturbance, including drought, wildfire, and blowdown, as well as exacerbate pests, diseases, and other agents to further increase stress on ecosystems (10, 15, 16). An example of the effect of climate on disturbance is seen in the Western United States, where climate variability drives wildfire occurrence in areas of high tree mortality from bark beetles (17, 18). Large disturbances are generally expected to increase, which could result in greater carbon releases from ecosystems (19, 20).

It is unclear whether many forests will be able to maintain their ability to sequester carbon at current rates. In many parts of the country, reforestation and the succession of young forest to older age classes has been a fundamental source of carbon uptake, and this sink may not be as strong in the future (21). Although warmer temperatures and enhanced CO2 may maintain and even increase the growth of many forests over the next few decades (22), these benefits may be variable across the landscape and ultimately transitory (23). Boreal forests are especially vulnerable to climate change, and the decline of these systems leads to dramatic carbon emissions (24, 25). Boreal and northern species within temperate systems also face potential declines as climate conditions become less suitable in the future and biomes shift toward ecosystems more tolerant of hotter and drier conditions that typically store less carbon (26-28). While new species may shift into these ecosystems, the pace of natural species migration is expected to be substantially slower than changes in climate (29, 30).