Where does all the carbon go? The missing sink

Abstract

Tracing carbon in elevated CO2 experiments: a workshop on isotopic analyses of where the carbon is going, Durham, NC, USA, October 2001 As 164 nations (with the notable exception of the USA) sign the Kyoto Protocol to limit CO2 emissions to the atmosphere, fundamental questions about the carbon cycle remain unresolved. Elevated CO2 experiments can address such questions, and following the early experiments demonstrating increased growth – with ‘greening planet earth’ headlines – these are now focussing on growth limitations. This shift of focus has stimulated new generations of technologies and research approaches to identify the ‘missing’ sink(s) in