Remarks on the use of ¹³C and ¹⁸O isotopes in Atmospheric CO₂ to Quantify biospheric carbon fluxes

Summary, in English

This chapter uses the mass-conservation equations for CO₂ and its isotopomers ¹³CO₂ and CO¹⁸O that can be used to infer globally biospheric and oceanic net fluxes in the case of ¹⁸C, and gross terrestrial biospheric fluxes in the case of ¹⁸O. The quantitative use of atmospheric measurements of ¹³C and ¹⁸O in CO₂ to better constrain those fluxes requires knowledge of various processes specific to each isotopomer. The chapter is divided into two parts, one on each isotope. For ¹³C, it reviews existing work that calculated isofluxes either using global estimates or derived isofluxes from spatially and temporally explicit models. In addition, it estimates the magnitude of new isofluxes that were not addressed in former studies. These cover the effects of biomass burning, rock weathering and volcanism, and the oxidation of reduced carbon gases into CO₂ within the atmosphere.

• Author: Philippe Ciais; Matthias Cuntz; Marko Scholze; Florent Mouillot; Philippe Peylin; Vincent Gitz
• Publishing year: 2005-12-01
• Language: English
• Pages: 235-267
• Publication/Series: Stable Isotopes and Biosphere - Atmosphere Interactions : Processes and Biological Controls
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-012088447-6/50014-3
• Document type: Book chapter
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Topic: Climate Research; Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISBN: 9780120884476; ISBN: 9780080525280