GSA Today Archive |
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GSA Today, v. 9, no. 11, November 1999
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Table of Contents
Science Article: (View Abstract)
A New Look at the Long-term Carbon Cycle
by Robert A. Berner
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also ...
| In Memoriam |
2 |
| Dialogue |
3 |
| About People |
6 |
| 2000 GSA Annual Meeting Field Trips |
7 |
| USArray Initiative |
8 |
| Washington Report—A Turn in U.S. Ocean Policy? |
11 |
| Environment Matters—Managing America's Coastal Parks |
13 |
| Session Proposals for the 2000 GSA Annual Meeting |
14 |
| SEG Student Research Grants |
15 |
| Age of Earth Symposium |
15 |
| First GSA Field Forum, Matanuska Glacier, Alaska |
16 |
| Rock Stars-Edwin McKee |
18 |
| GSA Foundation |
20 |
| Memories: 1999 GeoVentures |
22 |
| Call for Nominations |
23 |
| Book Reviews |
24 |
| Wanted: Your Geological Photos |
26 |
| GSA Honors 50-Year Members, Fellows |
27 |
| GSA Grants Support Student Research |
28 |
| Student Travel Grants |
28 |
| GSA Offers Awards in Geomorphology and Micropalentology |
29 |
| South-Central Section Awards 1999 Grants |
29 |
| Bulletin and Geology Contents |
30 |
| Classifieds |
31 |
| SAGE Remarks-Using the Method of Multiple Working Hypotheses |
36 |
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A New Look at the Long-term Carbon Cycle
Robert A. Berner,
Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-81009
ABSTRACT
The long-term carbon cycle is the cycle that operates over millions of years and
that involves the slow exchange of carbon between rocks and the surficial system
consisting of the ocean, atmosphere, biota, and soils. It is distin-guished from
the short-term carbon cycle, in which carbon is rapidly exchanged only within
the surficial system. A new type of diagram illustrates the cause-effect relations
involved in the long-term carbon cycle and how these processes affect the levels
of atmospheric O2 and CO2 . The diagram also includes the
cycle of phosphorus as it affects the burial of organic matter in sediments. The
diagram is distinctly different from, and is here compared to, the more traditional
representation of geochemical cycles in terms of box models. By following paths
leading from causes to effects, one can trace complex loops that demonstrate positive
and negative feedback, and this allows discovery of new subcycles that deserve
further study. This type of diagram should be applicable in general to other geological
and geochemical processes.
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