Carbon Sequestration

In the past 60 years, the amount of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitted to the atmosphere, primarily because of expanding use of fossil fuels for energy, has risen from pre-industrial levels of 280 parts per million to present levels of over 365 ppm.

Predictions of global energy use in the next century suggest a continued increase in carbon emissions and rising concentrations of CO₂ in the atmosphere unless major changes are made in the way we produce and use energy—in particular, how we manage carbon.

One way to manage carbon is to use energy more efficiently to reduce our need for a major energy and carbon source—fossil fuel combustion. Another way is to increase our use of low-carbon and carbon-free fuels and technologies (nuclear power and renewable sources such as solar energy, wind power, and biomass fuels). Both approaches are supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The third and newest way to manage carbon is through carbon sequestration.

Carbon sequestration refers to the provision of long-term storage of carbon in the terrestrial biosphere, underground, or the oceans so that the buildup of carbon dioxide (the principal greenhouse gas) concentration in the atmosphere will reduce or slow. In some cases, this is accomplished by maintaining or enhancing natural processes; in other cases, novel techniques are developed to dispose of carbon. http://cdiac2.esd.ornl.gov/index.html.

What is carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems?

Carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems can be defined as the net removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere into long-lived pools of carbon. The pools can be living, aboveground biomass (e.g., trees), products with a long, useful life created from biomass (e.g., lumber), living biomass in soils (e.g., roots and microorganisms), or recalcitrant organic and inorganic carbon in soils and deeper subsurface environments. It is important to emphasize that increasing photosynthetic carbon fixation alone is not enough. This carbon must be fixed into long-lived pools. Otherwise, one may be simply altering the size of fluxes in the carbon cycle, not increasing carbon sequestration -- http://csite.esd.ornl.gov/.