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Paleoclimatology (thesaurus)

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Concept information

Preferred term

carbon sink  

Definition

  • A carbon sink or CO2 sink is a reservoir (natural or artificial) that absorbs carbon from the carbon cycle. This carbon is sequestered in this reservoir with a very long residence time compared to that in the atmosphere. By stabilising the amount of atmospheric CO2, carbon sinks influence the global climate, and thus all the components of the environment that depend on them. Until the end of the Carboniferous period, the major sinks were the biological processes that produced coal, oil, natural gas, methane hydrates and limestone. Today, they are the oceans, soils (humus) and flora (forests, peat bogs, grasslands). Photosynthetic bacteria, plant organisms and the food chain and necromass that depend on them contribute to carbon sinks. (Adapted and translated from: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puits_de_carbone)

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http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/QX8-9LTMQ8L1-8

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