Cornell UniversityThe Carbon Cycle and Soil Organic CarbonAgronomy Fact Sheet SeriesField Crops Extension 1 College of Agriculture and Life Scie...
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network
The Carbon Cycle and Soil Organic Carbon
Agronomy Fact Sheet Series
Field Crops Extension 1 College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Carbon and the Carbon Cycle
Carbon (C) is one of the most common elements
in the universe and found virtually everywhere
on earth: in the air, the oceans, soil, and rock.
Carbon is part of geologic history in rock and
especially the ancient deposits that formed coal,
oil and other energy sources we use today.
Carbon is also an essential building block of life
and a component of all plants and animals on
the planet. It has unique bonding properties
that allow it to combine with many other
elements. These properties enable the
formation of molecules that are useful and
necessary to support life. The role of carbon in
living systems is so significant that a whole
branch of study is devoted to it: organic
chemistry. Carbon that is not tied up in rock or
deep in the oceans is constantly changing and
moving. This process is called the carbon cycle
(Figure 1). Soil holds the largest portion of
active carbon on earth. Plants take carbon from
the air and convert it to plant tissue, some of
Media
Taxonomy
- Soil
- Soil Carbon
- Carbon
- Activated Carbon