Climate change, ecosystem services, and biogeochemical cycles

Uptake and storage of CO₂ from the atmosphere is a benefit that people derive from ecosystems (an ecosystem service). These ecosystem processes reduce the concentration of the greenhouse gas that most drives climate change. Unfortunately, annual net CO₂ uptake by U.S. ecosystems is much less than the amount of CO₂ released to the atmosphere from human activities. Biogeochemical cycles, of carbon and other elements, interact with climate change to either increase or decrease the rate and direction of change as well as the vulnerability of people and ecosystems. Natural and managed shifts in these interactions present opportunities for managing change.