Carbon-Cycle Feedbacks Operating in the Climate System



Williams, Richard G ORCID: 0000-0002-3180-7558, Katavouta, Anna ORCID: 0000-0002-1587-4996 and Goodwin, Philip
(2019) Carbon-Cycle Feedbacks Operating in the Climate System. CURRENT CLIMATE CHANGE REPORTS, 5 (4). pp. 282-295.

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Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Climate change involves a direct response of the climate system to forcing which is amplified or damped by feedbacks operating in the climate system. Carbon-cycle feedbacks alter the land and ocean carbon inventories and so act to reduce or enhance the increase in atmospheric CO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> from carbon emissions. The prevailing framework for carbon-cycle feedbacks connect changes in land and ocean carbon inventories with a linear sum of dependencies on atmospheric CO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> and surface temperature. Carbon-cycle responses and feedbacks provide competing contributions: the dominant effect is that increasing atmospheric CO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> acts to enhance the land and ocean carbon stores, so providing a negative response and feedback to the original increase in atmospheric CO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>, while rising surface temperature acts to reduce the land and ocean carbon stores, so providing a weaker positive feedback for atmospheric CO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>. The carbon response and feedback of the land and ocean system may be expressed in terms of a combined carbon response and feedback parameter, <jats:italic>λ</jats:italic><jats:sub>carbon</jats:sub> in units of W m<jats:sup>− 2</jats:sup><jats:italic>K</jats:italic><jats:sup>− 1</jats:sup>, and is linearly related to the physical climate feedback parameter, <jats:italic>λ</jats:italic><jats:sub>climate</jats:sub>, revealing how carbon and climate responses and feedbacks are inter-connected. The magnitude and uncertainties in the carbon-cycle response and feedback parameter are comparable with the magnitude and uncertainties in the climate feedback parameter from clouds. Further mechanistic insight needs to be gained into how the carbon-cycle feedbacks are controlled for the land and ocean, particularly to separate often competing effects from changes in atmospheric CO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> and climate forcing.</jats:p>

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Carbon cycle, Carbon emissions, Carbon feedbacks, Climate feedbacks
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 28 Nov 2019 13:28
Last Modified: 19 Jan 2023 00:18
DOI: 10.1007/s40641-019-00144-9
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3063846

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