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Ecosystems (2014) 17: 344359
DOI: 10.1007/s10021-013-9715-7
2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York
Animating the Carbon Cycle
Oswald J. Schmitz,1* Peter A. Raymond,1 James A. Estes,2 Werner A. Kurz,3 Gordon W. Holtgrieve,4 Mark E. Ritchie,5 Daniel E. Schindler,4
Amanda C. Spivak,6 Rod W. Wilson,7 Mark A. Bradford,1 Villy Christensen,8 Linda Deegan,9 Victor Smetacek,10 Michael J. Vanni,11 and Christopher C. Wilmers12
1School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA; 2Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA; 3Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Victoria, British Columbia V8Z 1M5, Canada; 4School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-5020, USA; 5Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244, USA; 6Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543-1050, USA; 7Biosciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QD, UK; 8Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada; 9The Ecosystems Center Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA; 10Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, 27570 Bremerhaven, Germany; 11Department of Biology and Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology Graduate Program, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056, USA;
12Environmental Studies Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA
ABSTRACT
Understanding the biogeochemical processes regulating carbon cycling is central to mitigating atmospheric CO2 emissions. The role of living organisms has been accounted for, but the focus has traditionally been on contributions of plants and microbes. We develop the case that fully animating the carbon cycle requires broader consideration of the functional role of animals in mediating biogeochemical processes and quantication of their effects on carbon storage and exchange among terrestrial and aquatic reservoirs and the atmosphere. To encourage more hypothesis-driven experimental research that quanties animal effects we discuss the mechanisms by which animals may affect carbon exchanges and storage within and among
ecosystems and the atmosphere. We illustrate how those mechanisms lead to multiplier effects whose magnitudes may rival those of more traditional carbon storage and exchange rate estimates currently used in the carbon budget. Many animal species are already directly managed. Thus improved quantitative understanding of their inuence on carbon budgets may create opportunity for management and policy to identify and...