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Carbon cycle in the Arctic

This schematic illustrates changes in the cycling of carbon in the Arctic as climate warms. For example, beginning at the left of the figure, the boreal forest absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere and this is expected to increase, although forest fires and insect damage will increase in some areas, releasing more carbon to the atmosphere. Increasing amounts of carbon will also move from the tundra to ponds, lakes, rivers, and the continental shelves in the form of carbon dissolved in water (dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), and particulate organic carbon (POC)).

Carbon cycle in the Arctic

Source: ACIA Impacts of a Warming Arctic: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment  (2004),
 Key Finding #2, p.39

Related publication:
Arctic Climate Change homeArctic Climate Change
Other Figures & Tables on this publication:

The Earth’s Greenhouse Effect

Observed Arctic Temperature, 1900 to Present

Observed sea ice September 1979 and September 2003

Surface Reflectivity

Projected Vegetation, 2090-2100

Arctic Marine Food Web

Map subregions sub-I

Map subregions sub-II

Map subregions sub-III

Map subregions sub-IV

Arctic Thermohaline Circulation

Carbon cycle in the Arctic

Projected Arctic Surface Air Temperatures

Freshwater food web

Projected opening of northern navigation routes

Factors influencing UV at the surface

1000 years of changes in carbon emissions

People of the Arctic

Projected Surface Air Temperature change 1990-2090

Melt of the Greenland Ice Sheet

An ice primer

Spruce Bark Beetle

Spruce Budworm

Peary Caribou

The Porcupine Caribou Herd

The Gwich’in and the Porcupine Caribou Herd

A permafrost primer

Seals Become Elusive for Inuit in Nunavut

Observed Climate Change Impacts in Sachs Harbour, Canada

Indigenous knowledge and observations of current trends

Case study of interacting changes: Saami reindeer herders

Indigenous knowledge and observations of current trends

Indigenous knowledge and observations of current trends

Indigenous knowledge and observations of current trends

Footnotes