Carbon systems

A systems approach allows us to consider not just the links between various components, but quantify the relationships and understand how feedback effects operate.

The key elements of a carbon system are:

Inputs: quantities feeding in to the system

Outputs: quantities exiting the system

Stores / stocks: where quantities are contained for a sustained period in part of the system

Fluxes / Flows: transfer of quantities from one environment to another

Processes: mechanisms that generate change (such as photosynthesis)

Components: the ‘givens’ that systems operate upon (such as ‘plants’ that photosynthesize)

Controls: components that determine volume, scale, intensity and rate of system processes.

Within an overall system, there may be distinct sub-systems operating that have processes or components that are characteristic to them.

The overall global carbon system can be subdivided into the sub-systems of carbon operating on land, in oceans and in the atmosphere. They are all inter-related in that carbon is cycled between them, but are distinctive sub-systems in themselves.