The extent to which rivers transport burned carbon to oceans – where it can be stored for tens of millennia – is revealed in new research. The study calculates how much burned carbon is being flushed out by rivers and locked up in the oceans. Oceans store a surprising amount of carbon from burned vegetation, for example as a result of wildfires and managed burning. The research team describe it as a natural – if unexpected – quirk of the Earth system.
