ABSTRACT
A carbon sink is a carbon reservoir that absorbs more carbon dioxide (CO2) than it emits. The amount of carbon contained in the three reservoirs of exchangeable carbon (the atmosphere, the land, and the ocean) has increased since preindustrial times due to the release of CO2 (through burning fossil fuels) from the geological reservoir (the earth’s crust). Although the atmosphere is technically a carbon sink (for anthropogenic emissions of CO2), it is rarely ever referred to in this sense.
