Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere atmosphere, oceans, soil, rocks, and volcanism. Both carbon cycles are intrinsically interconnected and atmospheric gaseous carbon dioxide facilitates the carbon cycle. Natural sources of atmospheric carbon dioxide include volcanic outgassing, the combustion of organic matter, wildfires and the respiration processes of living aerobic organisms. Man-made sources of carbon dioxide include the burning of fossil fuels for heating, power generation and transport, as well as some industrial processes such as cement making. It is also produced by various microorganisms from fermentation and cellular respiration. Plants, algae and cyanobacteria convert carbon dioxide to carbohydrates by a process called photosynthesis. They gain the
Ocean storage of carbon dioxide Earth's climate. This presents itself as a readily available carbon sink to store and capture atmospheric carbon dioxide. Due to the solubility of carbon dioxide in water, CO2 naturally dissolves in oceanic waters to form an equilibrium. With an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the position of equilibrium pushes the equilibrium in the direction such that more CO2 dissolves into the water. Utilizing this mechanism, more than 500 Gtons of carbon dioxide (amounting to a total of 140 Gtons of carbon) of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions released over the past 2 centuries have been absorbed