Carbon cycle: Carbon sinks
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Any process that absorbs carbon from the atmosphere is known as a carbon sink. There are large carbon sinks both in the oceans and on land, such as the absorption of carbon dioxide by plants and plankton during photosynthesis. Natural carbon sinks don’t change the total amount of carbon in the atmosphere, because over timescales of decades to centuries the amount of carbon absorbed from the atmosphere by natural sinks is balanced out by the amount added to the atmosphere by natural sources. Over the last 100 years or so, humans have released increasing amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. The ocean and land carbon sinks have responded by increasing the amount of carbon they absorb each year – compensating for about half of human greenhouse gas emissions. The other half has accumulated in the atmosphere.
What happens to the carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels? This is the question Dr Parv Suntharalingam is trying to answer. Combining her knowledge in physics, chemistry, biology and maths, Parv uses computer models to simulate how carbon moves around the Earth system. ‘Using these models gives us a more detailed understanding of how future emissions may be absorbed by the land and oceans,’ says Parv. Although Parv is based at the UEA, the data used in these models are based on measurements taken from around the world. Parv’s very first ocean sampling cruise took her from Perth to Sri Lanka, where she was born.