Keller, David P. , Lenton, Andrew, Littleton, Emma W., Oschlies, Andreas , Scott, Vivian and Vaughan, Naomi E. (2018) The Effects of Carbon Dioxide Removal on the Carbon Cycle. Current Climate Change Reports, 4 (3). pp. 250-265. DOI 10.1007/s40641-018-0104-3.

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Abstract

Climate change resulting from increasing atmospheric CO2 is having detrimental effects on the Earth system. Societies have recognized that anthropogenic CO2 emissions must be reduced and ultimately cease to avoid potentially catastrophic impacts. However, at present timely and necessary emissions reductions appear to be very difficult to achieve. To compliment less than sufficient emissions reductions carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from the atmosphere is suggested. CDR is proposed through increasing natural carbon sinks, engineering new carbon sinks, or combing natural uptake with engineered storage. Initial studies demonstrate that removal of CO2 from the atmosphere will elicit a carbon cycle response with a “rebound” and other feedbacks generally opposing and so reducing the net-removal. We review this work into the carbon cycle response to CDR in general and for different proposed CDR methods and discuss future research needs. Understanding these dynamics and their uncertainties have important implications for quantifying the efficacy of CDR.

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