I was reading today that there’s something like 8 gigatons of CO2 in the air, but more than 400 gigatons of biomass on earth (which is mostly plants). Can someone explain how this happens to me?
Edit: My numbers were off. There’s about 10x as much CO2 mass in the atmosphere as there is biomass on Earth
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Maybe you should clarify your question. I don’t see how these figures could appear to conflict with one another.
Maybe you should clarify your question. I don’t see how these figures could appear to conflict with one another.
You’re approaching the problem backwards. It’s precisely because the plants, and all life in general, are holding the carbon, C, from that CO2 that there is so little of it in the atmosphere. Life is the reason why Earth has so much O2 and so little CO2 in contrast with other planets since O2 is incredibly reactive.
You’re approaching the problem backwards. It’s precisely because the plants, and all life in general, are holding the carbon, C, from that CO2 that there is so little of it in the atmosphere. Life is the reason why Earth has so much O2 and so little CO2 in contrast with other planets since O2 is incredibly reactive.
No. Imagine if there was more CO2 than now. Plant growth would be faster, because there was more CO2 to use…and the amount of free CO2 would go down.
The balance between carbon as biomass vs carbon as CO2 is dependent on the relative rates of plant growth vs biomass decay (and a myriad of other processes that add or subtract CO2 from the air). And those rates depend in turn on the amount of CO2.
The equilibrium point is just the mix where the rates are equal. If you’re not at equilibrium, things drift in that direction until you are.
No. Imagine if there was more CO2 than now. Plant growth would be faster, because there was more CO2 to use…and the amount of free CO2 would go down.
The balance between carbon as biomass vs carbon as CO2 is dependent on the relative rates of plant growth vs biomass decay (and a myriad of other processes that add or subtract CO2 from the air). And those rates depend in turn on the amount of CO2.
The equilibrium point is just the mix where the rates are equal. If you’re not at equilibrium, things drift in that direction until you are.
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