Full Text:
The ability to determine the fate of charcoal is critical to knowledge of the global carbon budget, which in turn can help understand and mitigate climate change. Charcoal, or black carbon, is a residue generated by combustion including wildfires and the burning of fossil fuels. At the National Science Foundation Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research site, researchers studied the glades' environmental chemistry.
Dissolved organic carbon is known to be abundant in wetlands such as the Everglades and plays a critical role in the ecology of these systems. The team discovered that as much as 20 percent of the total dissolved organic carbon in the Everglades is charcoal. The new findings show that the amount of dissolved charcoal transported to the oceans is keeping pace with the total charcoal generated by fires annually on a global scale.Image credit: Stefan Doerr, Swansea University
