Glossary

• Biomass - is living and recently dead biological material that can be used as fuel or for industrial production. Most commonly, biomass refers to plant matter grown for use as biofuel, but it also includes plant or animal matter used for production of fibres, chemicals or heat. Biomass may also include biodegradable wastes that can be burnt as fuel. It excludes organic material which has been transformed by geological processes into substances such as coal or petroleum.
• Cap Rock - The rock layer on top of the reservoir rock. The cap rock acts as a type of 'lid' to the reservoir and traps all the CO2 underneath it. The cap rock is made out of a different rock than the reservoir rock. It is impermeable, which means that it is very hard for any liquid to pass through it.
• Carbon Cycle - The naturally occurring process that describes the movement of all carbon between the geosphere, atmosphere, biosphere and oceans. The carbon is transferred between each reservoir in a series of complex processes. Some act as 'sinks' or storage sites for varying amounts of carbon. e.g. plants absorb carbon dioxide when they photosynthesise. Some transferral rates are over long periods of time (millions of years) and some are over short periods of time (photosynthesis/respiration).
• Climate Change - In a modern context, climate change refers to man-made or anthropogenic influenced climate change. There is strong evidence that modern climate change and its associated effects are due to the large amounts of CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere with the burning of fossil fuels. The subsequent effects of climate change are global warming, ocean acidification and an increase in severe weather events.
• Global Warming - There have always been natural variations in mean global temperatures however modern global warming is thought to be associated with increased atmospheric CO2 due to anthropogenic activities.
• Greenhouse Gas - The greenhouse gases contribute to the greenhouse effect of the earth. The radiant energy from the sun enters our atmosphere but is blocked from re-radiating out again by the greenhouse gases (similar to the conventional greenhouse you may have in your backyard). Without these greenhouse gases, the radiant energy from the sun would bounce back into space. The earth would be too cold to support life. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a 'greenhouse gas' - it traps some of the radiation that would otherwise be lost to space, and causes the Earth's atmosphere to be warmer than it would otherwise be. Man-made emissions of carbon dioxide have caused the amount in the atmosphere to increase by about 30% since pre-industrial times, and this is a major cause of global warming. Therefore it is important for us to understand how the carbon cycle works in order for us to be able to predict how it may behave in the future.
• IPCC - The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a scientific body tasked to evaluate the risk of climate change caused by human activity. The panel was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), two organizations of the United Nations. (You can read more on the IPCC Website)
• Pore Spaces - the empty space between the grains of a rock. It also includes the spaces between fractures and voids. The percentage of pore space differs markedly with each rock type. In many cases, it is not visible with the naked eye.
• Reservoir - A reservoir is a space that can contain another item. e.g. a dam. In this case however, we are interested in a 'hydrocarbon reservoir'. This reservoir would be a rock that would hold the hydrocarbons (oil or gas) in its pore spaces. e.g. sandstone. The hydrocarbons would be kept 'locked into' the reservoir by a less permeable rock formation lying on top of it. This impermeable layer would act as a 'lid' or cap rock.
• Ocean Acidification - One underestimated effect of increased atmospheric CO2 is ocean acidification. According to the carbon cycle, increasing atmospheric concentration of CO2 has the knock of effect of increasing the amount of dissolved CO2 in the oceans. This dissolved CO2 then reacts with the ocean water to produce carbonic acid, decreasing the pH and acidifying the water. The threat of ocean acidification is vastly underestimated - it threatens all sea life and ecosystems which would have an impact on human systems.