The Global Carbon Cycle

Catalog description

This course focuses on one of the most challenging environmental issues of our era, the accumulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) in our atmosphere due to human modification of the global carbon cycle. We will study the processes, terrestrial, oceanic, atmospheric, and anthropogenic, that govern the sources and sinks of carbon into and out of the global atmosphere, and will study the methods used to quantify the carbon cycle. The primary focus is on the recent past (industrial era) and near-future (~100 years), when carbon cycle management decisions will play a critical role in climate change. The course starts with a review of global atmospheric CO2 and CH4 trends during the industrial era, and examines how atmospheric data inform our understanding of the global carbon cycle. The course then studies contemporary terrestrial biosphere, marine, and anthropogenic processes governing the carbon cycle. The paleorecord of the carbon cycle is reviewed, including glacial / interglacial cycles. Carbon cycle predictions and projections, including options for human management of the carbon cycle, are presented and evaluated. Ethical and economic factors, in addition to physical and biological processes, are considered. The course is appropriate for graduate students or advanced undergraduates with a sound background in quantitative sciences or engineering. The course is suitable for students from a wide variety of degree programs across the university.