What is the largest carbon reservoir on our planet?
The largest carbon reservoir on our planet is the ocean. The ocean holds about 50 times more carbon than the atmosphere and is the largest active carbon reservoir on Earth.
The largest carbon reservoir on our planet is the Earth's oceans. To calculate this, we can look at the Earth's carbon budget, which considers the amount of carbon stored and transferred between the atmosphere, land, and oceans.
To estimate the carbon reservoir in the oceans, we need to consider the concentration of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and the size of Earth's oceans. DIC is the carbon dioxide (CO2) dissolved in seawater, which exists in different forms such as dissolved CO2, bicarbonate ions, and carbonate ions.
The concentration of DIC in the oceans is roughly 38,000 billion metric tons (Gt) of carbon. The total mass of Earth's oceans is estimated to be about 1.4 billion cubic kilometers (km^3), which is equivalent to 1.4 x 10^18 metric tons (Mt) of water.
To convert the volume of water to mass of carbon, we need to know the proportion of carbon in DIC. Since the atomic mass of carbon is about 12 atomic mass units (AMU), and the atomic mass of carbon dioxide is about 44 AMU (1 carbon atom + 2 oxygen atoms), the carbon content in DIC is roughly 27% (12/44).
Using these values, we can calculate the carbon reservoir in the oceans as follows:
Carbon reservoir in oceans = Concentration of DIC x Mass of water x Proportion of carbon in DIC
= 38,000 Gt x (1.4 x 10^18 Mt) x 0.27
After performing the calculation, we find that the carbon reservoir in the Earth's oceans is approximately 10,710 billion metric tons (Gt) of carbon. Therefore, the oceans contain the largest carbon reservoir on our planet.