Carbon and carbon dioxide always played an important role in the geobiosphere that is part of the Eartha (TM)s outer shell and surface environment. The booka (TM)s eleven chapters cover the fundamentals of the biogeochemical behavior of carbon near the Eartha (TM)s surface, in the atmosphere, minerals, waters, air-sea exchange, and inorganic and biological processes fractionating the carbon isotopes, and its role in the evolution of inorganic and biogenic sediments, ocean water, the coupling to nutrient nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, and the future of the carbon cycle in the Anthropocene.

This book is mainly a reference text for Earth and environmental scientists; it presents an overview of the origins and behavior of the carbon cycle and atmospheric carbon dioxide, and the human effects on them. The book can also be used for a one-semester course at an intermediate to advanced level addressing the behavior of the carbon and related cycles.

"By thoroughly researching the fundamental principles of the biogeochemical cycling of carbon, Mackenzie and Lerman have been able to illustrate with clarity the profound impact of humans, as a biogeological agent, are having on the global carbon cycle. Never before has there been a more pressing need to understand the intricacies of the geobiosphere with respect to the cycling of planetary carbon, and this text provides the most thoroughly researched, authoritative, and definite text of the global carbon cycle that exists to date. This book is a contemporary appraisal of knowledge on the global carbon cycle and should become the standard scientific reference manual for all those involved in the fight against climate change. It is difficultto think of a more important book for one of the greatest issues facing humanity in the 21st century." Review published in J. Environm. Qual. 36: 1546 (2007, by Dr. Jeffrey P. Obbard, Division of Environmental Sciences & Engineering, Tropical Marine Science Inst. National Univ. of Singapore

"Mackenzie and Lerman's book is the culmination of two splendid careers dedicated to understanding the carbon cycle. Ita (TM)s everything you always wanted to know about carbon biogeochemistry past, present, and future." Lee R. Kump, Dept. of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, USA

"Majestic in scope; this text builds from fundamentals to front-line research, showing the pivotal role of the carbon cycle in earth system science." Rob Raiswell, University of Leeds, UK

"Using skills honed from decades of leadership in the field, Mackenzie and Lerman ably guide us along the pathways of carbon cycling in Eartha (TM)s outer layers. This is an essential journey for anyone interested in the origin and evolution of life and its fate under human influence." Tim Lyons, University of California, Riverside, USA

This book is a natural extension of the SCOPE (Scientific Committee of Problems on the Environment) volumes on the carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and sulfur (S) biogeochemical cycles and their interactions (Likens, 1981; Bolin and Cook, 1983). Substantial progress in the knowledge of these cycles has been made since publication of those volumes. In particular, the nature and extent of biological and inorganic interactions between these cycles have been identified, positive and negative feedbacks recognized and the relationship between the cycles and global environmental change preliminarily elucidated. In March 1991, a NATO Advanced Research Workshop was held for one week in Melreux, Belgium to reexamine the biogeochemical cycles of C, N, P and S on a variety of time and space scales from a holistic point of view. This book is the result of that workshop. The biogeochemical cycles of C, N, P and S are intimately tied to each other through biological productivity and subsequently to problems of global environmental change. These problems may be the most challenging facing humanity in the 21 st century. In the broadest sense, "global change" encompasses both changes to the status of the large, globally connected atmospheric, oceanic and terrestrial environments (e. g. tropospheric temperature increase) and change occurring as the result of nearly simultaneous local changes in many regions of the world (e. g. eutrophication).

Global warming is among the more pressing issues in ecology and environmental science. Until now, the important issue of the role of biotic feedback has not been addressed in one volume. Changes in biotic processes create feedback into the climate which has implications for global climatic change. Important biogenic gases and the feedback generated by them from the warming of the earth, biospheric changes of forest regions and the feedback caused by disturbance to these forests, and biofeedback in the ocean caused by overall climatic changes, are all part of the biotic processes which affect global climatic change. George Woodwell is a leading worker on global warming, and one of the most influential environmental scientists, and has drawn together a superb group of authors to present the current scientific understanding of this issue in one volume.