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Fundamentals of Global Carbon Budgets and Climate Change

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Fundamental Principles of Environmental Physics

Abstract

Global climate grid.9983.b change and GHG emissions are essential topics for understanding physical processes ongoing in the atmospheric boundary layer, within a control volume extending from the top ground to the troposphere. This chapter aimed therefore to deliver a qualitative and quantitative approach to climate change processes and carbon balance components. This approach is facilitated by the grounding on fundamentals of atmosphere and microclimate dynamics, such as the radiation windowing, spectral turbulence, and heat transfer processes, previously discussed. The first question addressed was the quantification over the last decades of the main components of the global carbon budgets including fossil fuel emissions, land-use change, carbon uptake by land, and oceans or CO2 atmospheric concentration. The climate change predictive scenarios of IPCC are described, mainly focusing on the interactions among atmospheric carbon, carbon sequestration, environmental temperature, and precipitation. Also discussed is the occurrence of extreme events, such as heatwaves and precipitation episodes. This discussion reports modeling results in the literature characterizing essential parameters of extreme events such as duration, peaking, and returning periods in the context of natural and/or anthropogenic driving. Finally, some elaboration is given to biochar as a promising technology for carbon sequestration and mitigation of carbon emissions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UTI, Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária, Oeiras, Portugal

    Abel Rodrigues

  2. Carnaxide, Portugal

    Raul Albuquerque Sardinha

  3. IST—Mechanical Engineering, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Gabriel Pita

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  1. Abel Rodrigues
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  2. Raul Albuquerque Sardinha
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  3. Gabriel Pita
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Correspondence to Abel Rodrigues .

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Rodrigues, A., Sardinha, R.A., Pita, G. (2021). Fundamentals of Global Carbon Budgets and Climate Change. In: Fundamental Principles of Environmental Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69025-0_8

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