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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 3, NUMBER 10, OCTOBER 1990

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS...
GLOBAL CO₂ CYCLES

Item #d90oct16

"The Sensitivity of Terrestrial Carbon Storage to Climate Change," K.C. Prentice (NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr., 2880 Broadway, New York NY 10025), I.Y. Fung, Nature, 346(6279), 48-51, July 5, 1990.

Estimates the role of the terrestrial biosphere in controlling atmospheric CO₂ levels during climatic perturbations by simulating the global geographical distribution of vegetation during the last glacial maximum, 18 kyr ago. Results show that although the biosphere may have contributed to the decrease in atmospheric CO₂ of 80 ppm known to have occurred at 18 kyr, that does not seem to have been a dominant factor. For simulations with twice present-day CO₂ levels, strong negative feedbacks appear which remove 235 Gt of carbon from the atmosphere.

Item #d90oct17

"El Niño and Atmospheric CO₂," U. Siegenthaler (Phys. Inst., Univ. Bern, Sidlerstr. 5, CH-3012, Bern, Switz.), Nature, 345(6273), 295-296, May 24, 1990. A comment on the apparent link between El Niño Southern Oscillation events and fluctuations in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.

Item #d90oct18

"Model Estimation of Excess CO₂ Distribution in Biosphere Structure," V.F. Krapivin (Inst. Radio Eng. & Electronics, USSR Acad. Sci., Moscow 103907 USSR), L.P. Vilkova, Ecol. Model., 50(1-3), 57-58, Mar. 1990.

The model represents terrestrial biota by 30 types of ecosystems and uses a two-layer ocean. The predicted contribution of the ocean and terrestrial biota to excess CO₂ absorption by the year 2000 will be 25% and 13%, respectively. Of the total amount of carbon absorbed by the terrestrial biota by the year 2030, temperate zone forests will absorb 28% of excess CO₂ and tropical forests 49%.

Item #d90oct19

"13C/12C of Atmospheric CO₂ in the Amazon Basin: Forest and River Sources," P. Quay (Sch. Oceanog., Univ. Washington, Seattle WA 98105), S. King et al., J. Geophys. Res., 94(D15), 18,327-18,336, Dec. 20, 1989.

Concentrations and the delta 13C values of CO₂ in the lower atmospheric boundary layer were measured. Three major trends were observed: a diurnal cycle, a vertical gradient, and different 13C composition for CO₂ in air over the river and in the forest. Results indicate that soil and plant respiration were the primary sources of CO₂ input to air in the forest, while degassing of CO₂ from the Amazon River is the likely source of CO₂ input to air over the river.

Item #d90oct20

"A Model to Estimate Carbon Dioxide Recycling in Forests Using 13C/12C Ratios and Concentrations of Ambient Carbon Dioxide," L. da S.L. O'R. Sternberg, Agric. For. Meteor., 48(1-2), 163-173, Oct. 1989.

Investigates whether respired CO₂ is largely refixed by photosynthesis of forest vegetation, or released to the global atmospheric system. Uses a steady-state model to predict the relationship between ambient forest CO₂ concentrations and delta 13C values, as a function of the proportion of the respired CO₂ reabsorbed by photosynthesis. Comparisons of model predictions with data collected in Panama show that about 7-8% of respired CO₂ is recycled via photosynthesis.

Item #d90oct21

"Climatic Change and CaCO3 Preservation: An 800,000 Year Bathymetric Reconstruction from the Central Equatorial Pacific Ocean," J.W. Farrell (Dept. Geol. Sci., Brown Univ., Providence RI), W.L. Prell, Paleoceanog., 4(4), 447-466, Aug. 1989. Investigated processes that promote the cycling of carbon among several reservoirs and serve as important controls of both oceanic carbon chemistry and atmospheric CO₂ content over orbital time scales (104 to 105 years).