The Phanerozoic Carbon Cycle CO[2 and O[2 [Hardcover]

The term carbon cycle is normally thought to mean those processes that govern the present-day transfer of carbon between life, the atmosphere, and the oceans. This book describes another carbon cycle, one which operates over millions of years and involves the transfer of carbon between rocks and the combination of life, the atmosphere, and the oceans. The weathering of silicate and carbonate rocks and ancient sedimentary organic matter (including recent, large-scale human-induced burning of fossil fuels), the burial of organic matter and carbonate minerals in sediments, and volcanic degassing of carbon dioxide contribute to this cycle. In The Phanerozoic Carbon Cycle, Robert Berner shows how carbon cycle models can be used to calculate levels of atmospheric CO[2 and O[2 over Phanerozoic time, the past 550 million years, and how results compare with independent methods. His analysis has implications for such disparate subjects as the evolution of land plants, the presence of giant ancient insects, the role of tectonics in paleoclimate, and the current debate over global warming and greenhouse gases

1. Introduction
2. Processes of the Long-term Carbon Cycle: Chemical Weathering of Silicates
3. Processes of the Long-term Carbon Cycle: Organic Matter and Carbonate Burial and Weathering
4. Processes of the Long-term Carbon Cycle: Degassing of Carbon Dioxide and Methane
5. Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide over Phanerozoic Time
6. Atmospheric O2 over Phanerozoic Time

This unusually readable research monograph addresses the long-term carbon cycle over the past 550 million years. Berner, a distinguished professor at Yale University, has drawn from decades of pioneering research experiences to give readers a detailed, balanced road map to carbon cycle modeling. Slender but dense, the book examines the processes that lead to the long-term carbon cycle and concludes with a chapter apiece on the evolution of atmospheric carbon dioxide and oxygen concelt