Geological controls on carbon budgets

This report is the result of a study by the British Geological Survey (BGS) as a contribution to the ‘Carbon Dynamics Project’ that forms a part of the ‘Coastal and Global Climate Change Programme’. It is a review of the present state of knowledge on the Earth’s carbon cycle based on peer reviewed published literature and Internet data. It has been formulated and written to identify the potential contribution the British Geological Survey can make to the NERC science programme in the context of the NERC publication ‘Science for a Sustainable Future’, and as a contribution to deliberations now taking place (March 2004) on the next BGS five year programme (2005-2010). The Carbon Dynamics Project is a scoping study with the overall objectives of: 1. preparing a review of the long term role of sediment storage in the carbon cycle, 2. reviewing the carbon flux between sediments, the sea and the atmosphere over geological timescales, 3. estimating the volume of the long term carbon store, 4. providing data to calibrate models of the NERC Earth Science Modelling Initiative (NESMI), 5. providing a BGS context for contributing to the NERC Quantifying and Understanding the Earth System (QUEST) Initiative, 6. providing a discussion document for the new BGS five year plan (2005-2010), and 7. providing a foundation for BGS publications on the Public Understanding of Science (PUS).