Types of carbon reservoir in organisms

As the main building blocks of life, carbon exists in all organisms including plants, animals and microorganisms which contain this element inside their internal environment of the bodies.

These organisms use carbon as a form of energy to maintain their body system functioning well.

Besides living organisms, the carbon elements also exist in form of inanimate or non-living organisms like the atmosphere, under the ground and in every form of matters namely gas, liquid and solid.

In other words, carbon exists everywhere on earth and carbon accumulated in enormous amount has to be deposited in carbon reservoir on the earth before it is used during the carbon cycle or by organisms.

There are many types of carbon reservoir that can be found on earth and a carbon reservoir refers to the place or spot where carbon is amassed and contained.

A carbon reservoir can exist in the atmosphere, biomass, oceans, sedimentary rocks or fossil fuels.

Dr Waseem Razzaq Khan, head of the carbon programme at the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia Bintulu Campus said the carbon reservoir which contains huge amount of carbon is the atmosphere or the sky.

He explained that in the atmosphere, the carbon usually exists in the form of gas or carbon gases like the carbon dioxide (CO₂) or methane gas (CH₄).

“The carbon gases exist in the atmosphere have the function as greenhouse gas which makes the temperature surrounding the earth able to sustain the living organism thriving on the biosphere.

“Both of the gases can be released into the atmosphere through the respiration of the living organisms.

“Decomposition of dead matter can increase the amount of carbon gas such as methane, released into atmosphere naturally.

“During volcanic eruption, carbon dioxide gas can be released into the atmosphere making the carbon gas deposited deep in the earth to be free out to the atmosphere,” he told the New Sarawak Tribune.

Besides natural occurrences, Waseem said carbon gases is deposited hugely in the atmosphere through anthropogenical activity like combustion of fossil fuel from vehicle and energy generation from coals, human activity has made carbon reservoir in the atmosphere to contain carbon more than is supposed to contain.

He pointed out another form of carbon reservoir that occurred on the earth is known as biomass.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, biomass is the organic material which came from plants, animals, or microorganisms that is not fossilised and can be easily degraded due to other living organisms.

A diagram shows types of carbon reservoir that exist on the Earth and the accumulated carbon mass in the carbon reservoir.

“Biomass can come from the plant litters in the forest and from agriculture activity after the crop harvest as the plants and trees shed its plant parts like leaf, twigs and branches.

“Besides plants, animals can also produce biomass from its defecation matters and after the animals die and gone through the decomposition process.

“The biomass which is rich in carbon will be deposited on topsoil of the place where the living organisms are thriving.

“The biomass later will be utilised by the living organisms such as other plants as nutrients to maintain the plants’ well-being,” he said.

Waseem explained that deforestation which currently occurred in large scale can affect the biomass carbon reservoir in the forest making the carbon reservoir highly disturbed and displaces the carbon to other places like river and into the atmosphere.

At the same time, he said the vast ocean is also considered as carbon reservoir as carbon can be deposited in surface ocean, ocean biota, and deep ocean.

In the surface ocean, he said the carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere can enter into ocean through the diffusion of the carbon dioxide gas, therefore the seawater does contain the carbon amount.

“The carbon dioxide gas exists in the surface ocean will be used by the living organisms that lives in the ocean biota such as aquatic organisms thriving in the coral reefs such as the fishes, shrimps,  corals, and the planktons.

“As the ocean organisms dies, biomass of the dead ocean matters can add into the carbon reservoir in the ocean.

“In the deep ocean, the carbon reservoir of the ocean exists in forms deep sea creatures living in the deep sea environment, and the volcanic gases released in the deep sea environment which holds the carbon for ages. Compared to the atmosphere, the vast ocean holds more carbon as much as 50 more times,” he said.

Besides the ocean, Waseem pointed out that sedimentary rock is another carbon reservoiron that exists on the earth.

He said this is because ancient plants and animals lived during the ages of the dinosaur millions years ago has been deposited into sedimentary rocks deep in the earth.

“The ancient plants and animals would have gone through various geologic process occurring for millions of years after the ancient living organisms died making the carbon content from the ancient living organisms trapped later changed into fossil fuel and coal.

“Other than carbon derived fossilised ancient plants and animals, sedimentary rocks until deep into the earth’s core which is the mantle also holds non-living form of the carbon that exist in rocks and minerals deep inside the earth’s core which has existed during the formation of the earth.

“The carbon in the sedimentary rocks can be naturally slowly let free to the earth atmosphere through erosion process while fast release of sedimentary rock carbon into the atmosphere is through the volcanic eruption.

“The development of motor vehicle which largely use the fossil fuel and the production of energy using coal has released the sedimentary rocks carbon hugely into the earth atmosphere in form of carbon gas,” he explained.

Waseem highlighted how the carbon cycle supposedly maintains the amount of carbon in the mentioned carbon reservoirs in balanced and controlled amount.

However, the recent increase of human or anthropogenic activities such as deforestation, burning of fossil fuel and large-scale industrial activity have increase the amount of carbon in a few carbon reservoirs such as the atmosphere more than the supposed amount of the carbon reservoirs can hold.

“The imbalance of carbon amount in some of the carbon reservoir can create effects like global warming, climate change and also the destruction of habitat for flora and fauna.

“The measures need to be taken such as engaging lifestyle that produces less or zero carbon by every individual, society and also government to maintain the balance of carbon amount in the carbon reservoir,” he concluded.