Category Archives: Carbon Cycle

The Missing 13C

Posted on May 21, 2017 by

A couple years back we decided to try making an isotope integrated Carbon cycle model, to see if we could replicate the isotopic “excursions” evident in the geological record. This effort foundered because we couldn’t even balance the current Carbon … Continue reading →

Posted in Carbon Cycle, Isotope Integrated Carbon Cycle | Leave a comment

Carbon Starved Planet

Posted on July 20, 2015 by

We owe the title of this book to Ferdinand Engelbeen, who wrote the words in one of many blog discussions some years ago. Ferdinand’s words resonated instantly as a title for the book we had been working on for several … Continue reading →

Posted in Carbon Cycle | Tagged | 1 Comment

How Big is the Carbon Cycle?

Posted on June 14, 2015 by

Just google it and you will finds dozens of Carbon cycle illustrations. Most are cartoons, but half a dozen good ones can be filtered out. Mostly they agree in round numbers. The following by the IPCC is clearly the best: … Continue reading →

Posted in Carbon Cycle, Climate | Leave a comment

Doubling the Carbon Cycle

Posted on May 7, 2015 by

In the last post we had set out to model geological isotope excursions and found that our conception of the current Carbon cycle is so messed up that any venture into deep time hopeless. Specifically, when d13C values are integrated … Continue reading →

Posted in Carbon Cycle | Tagged | Leave a comment

Cycling the Isotopes

Posted on April 26, 2015 by

We have long been interested in Carbon isotope “excursions” and took a notion to integrate isotope ratios into a simple box model of the Carbon cycle with an eye to replicating these excursions. The initial result was surprising and it became … Continue reading →

Posted in Carbon Cycle, Carbon Dioxide Loves to Swim, Climate | Tagged | 2 Comments

YGBFkiddinme, Low Emissions Grass?

Posted on September 18, 2013 by

From Nature Magazine this pearl of pulchritude: “The solution, says Michael Peters, an agronomist at CIAT and leader of the team that has developed the low-emissions grass, is to encourage ammonium to persist in the soil for longer, by suppressing microbial … Continue reading →

Posted in Biology, Carbon Cycle, Climate, Climate Change, History of Life, Microbial Dark Matter, Paleoclimate, Salvation from Cows, What's going on here? | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dude, It’s Not About Carbon Dioxide

Posted on August 25, 2013 by

We know a lot about Carbon dioxide in a jar. We know the wavelengths it prefers to absorb and emit photons. We know it tends to mix efficiently with other gasses. We know it has a nearly magical affinity for … Continue reading →

Posted in Carbon Cycle, Carbon Dioxide Loves to Swim, Climate, Climate Change, Global Warming, Paleoclimate | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment