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I don't think that's true - my understanding is a forest produces soil continuously, and that's a carbon sink
by circlefavshape 1y ago
I don't think that's true - my understanding is a forest produces soil continuously, and that's a carbon sink
- pfdietz 1y agoSoil too eventually reaches an equilibrium where carbon injection and carbon oxidation are in balance. If what you thought was true, imagine a forest sitting there for millions of years. Where would this permanently sequestered carbon be going? Soils do not become unboundedly thick.
- Geee 1y agoWell, that's what oil and coal are. Oil is formed from marine biomass, and coal is formed from plants.
- pfdietz 1y agoThe rate at which these are formed over time is very very small. Almost all carbon fixed by photosynthesis is oxidized over a much shorter time scale.
- anticensor 1y agoCoal no longer forms, oil is still forming but far slower than the rate consumed.
- circlefavshape 1y agohmmm ... but forests don't actually sit there for millions of years, right? and either way soils get eroded and ultimately end up on the ocean floor https://ijw.org/wild-carbon-storage-in-old-forests/ https://ijw.org/wild-carbon-storage-in-old-forests/
- RivieraKid 1y agoThis was true in the carboniferous period, when the organisms able to metabolize the lignin in trees haven't evolved yet, so the dead trees ended up as coal.