| The World's Carbon Reservoirs |
| Reservoir |
Size (Gt C) |
| Atmosphere |
750 |
| Forests |
610 |
| Soils |
1580 |
| Surface ocean |
1020 |
| Deep ocean |
38,100 |
| Earth's crust |
50 x 106 |
|
| Fossil fuels (total: yet to be
released) |
| Coal |
4,000 |
| Oil |
500 |
| Natural gas |
500 |
| Total fossil fuel |
5,000 |
|
Note that:
-
the atmosphere's reservoir is smaller than all others except
the forests' (the amount of
CO2 in the atmosphere therefore depends strongly on exchanges
between the other components)
-
though amounts in the deep oceans and crust are large, the
mechanisms that exchange the carbon there with the atmosphere are slow.
|