If 1 ppm of the total carbon in the rock reservoir were moved to the atmosphere, with no compensating transfer of carbon out of the atmosphere, what would be the percentage increase in the mass of carbon in the atmosphere?
Rock reservoir contains 50 000 000 × 10p12 kgC; 1 ppm is one-millionth, so divide by 1 × 10p6 , thus 50 × 10p12kgC. Atmospheric reservoir is 800 × 10p12 kgC, the percentage increase 50 × 10p12 kgC, represents 50 / 800 x 100% = 6.3% (2 sig figs)
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