ENV 594a () / 2025-2026

Global Carbon Cycle

Credits: 3 Fall 2025: Time and location TBA

Carbon is one of the most abundant elements in the universe, the building block for all of biochemistry, and the energy exchange material for the Earth’s metabolism. Over the past two hundred years, people have mined fossil carbon to power the global economy, leading to profound transformations in the cycling of carbon among land, oceans, and atmosphere and disrupting Earth’s climate. This course explores in detail the cycling of labile carbon among the major biogeochemical reservoirs. We spend roughly four weeks each on land and oceans and spend the final four weeks exploring carbon-climate  interactions, including engineered carbon dioxide reduction. The course is involves quite a bit of mathematics and computation. All are encouraged to register, but please be aware of the quantitative approach.