8. Terrestrial Carbon#
Over the course of the next four lectures we will discuss the role of the land surface in Earth’s climate system. Although the land surface is not included in your climate model for the lab report, the land plays a critical role in Earth’s climate, both because it stores a lot of carbon (2-3x as much as the surface ocean) and because it is critical for Earth’s heat and moisture balance. The land surface is also critical for the production of trace atmospheric gases, which we learned at the end of Michaelmas term are precursors to aerosol formation. And the land surface is where the vast majority of methane that reaches the atmosphere comes from.