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(3) What mechanisms control the ability of ecosystems to rapidly restore and what
are indicators that re
fl
ect this ability of ecosystems?
How do an introduction of new species to ecosystems and an appearance of
new unstudied diseases affect the development of biogeochemical cycles in
land and water ecosystems?
What feedbacks between ecosystems and climate are critical and how these
feedbacks are parameterized in computer models?
Can the data on the past biogeochemical cycles be used for their prediction
in the future?
What basic parameters and characteristics of ecosystems affect their ability
to restore after anthropogenic forcings?
uence and maintain our climate
system. Land use and fossil fuel emissions are currently impacting the biogeo-
chemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen and sulfur on land, in the atmosphere, and in
the oceans (Schulze et al. 2001). Our understanding of biogeochemical cycles is
directly related to the research and analyses that are brought to them, and to the
methods that are used. Jacobson (2000) notes that the study of cycles as a model for
the earth
The interactions of biogeochemical cycles in
fl
'
is changing climate has become a new science. Earth Systems Science is
the basis for understanding all aspects of anthropogenic global change, such as
chemically forced global climate change. Earth Systems Science is an integrated
discipline that has been rapidly developing over the last two decades.
Biogeochemical cycles are characterized by the variety of pathways which are
passed by chemical elements. Ecosystems have many biogeochemical cycles
operating as a part of the global or regional system, for example the water cycle, the
carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle, etc. All chemical elements occurring in organisms
are part of biogeochemical cycles. In addition to being a part of living organisms,
these chemical elements also cycle through abiotic factors of ecosystems such as
water (hydrosphere), land (lithosphere), and/or the air (atmosphere). All of this
performs the biogeochemical cycle modeling as very ambiguous task.
1.7.2 The Carbon Cycle Modeling
The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among
the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth.
Figures
1.23
,
1.24
,
1.25
,
1.26
,
1.27
,
1.28
and
1.29
present a diversity of possible
scheme for modeling.
Considering the notations in Fig.
1.30
, the balance equations to describe the
global carbon cycle are written as:
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