The Global Carbon Cycle and Climate

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 The Global
Carbon Cycle and
Climate Change
Scaling Ecological Energetics from
Organism to Biosphere

David E. Reichle
Associate Director, retired
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Elsevier
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List of figures

Figure 3.1 Energy exchange of the Earth and atmosphere for the northern hemisphere
(100 units ¼ 0.485 cal cm2 min1) based upon a solar constant value of
1.94 cal cm2 min1 17
Figure 3.2 Global map of global horizontal radiation on the earth’s surface, kWm2. 19
Figure 3.3 Radiation exchange for a leaf. 19
Figure 3.4 The boundary layer between a leaf and its environment. 25
Figure 3.5 The oak forest of Virelles-Blaimont energy balance from 25 May to 24
October, 1967 (cal cm2). So, extraatmosphere solar radiation on a
horizontal surface (short waves); aSo, extraatmospheric solar radiation
reflected by Earth-atmosphere system; Soabs, solar radiation absorbed by
atmosphere; S, direct solar radiation on a horizontal surface; U,
extraatmospheric upward radiation (long waves); D, diffuse scattered
radiation on a horizontal surface (short waves); G, global radiation on a
horizontal surface (S þ D) (short waves); Te, terrestrial radiation (long
waves); A, atmospheric radiation (long waves); aS, reflected solar
radiation; aD, reflected diffuse radiation, aG, reflected global radiation;
aNA, reflected atmospheric radiation; apG, global radiation utilized in net
photosynthesis; Q1, short-wave radiation balance (G - aG); Q2, long-wave
radiation balance (A - Te); Q, short- and long-wave radiation balance
(G - aG þ A - aNA - Te); QG, sensible heat flux in soil; QV, sensible heat
flux in vegetation; K, sensible heat turbulent flux; V, latent heat in
evapotranspiration; QR, latent heat in water condensation; Qh, advective
sensible heat; Qprec, sensible heat flux in precipitation water. Parameters of
the stand (per ha): biomass, 156 ton; net primary production (ground), 14.6
ton. Exchange aerial surfaces (ha ha1): foliage (2 faces) of trees, 14; bark
of trees, 2; herb layer, 2; litter, 1.5; total exchange surfaces (except litter,
18 haha1). Figures in brackets are estimated values (metric ton ¼ 106 g). 35
Figure 3.6 Energy exchange for a lizard in its natural desert environment, showing the
energy flows to the desert surface and to the lizard. 37
Figure 3.7 Core-shell (two-layer) model for a lizard and a schematic representation of
the thermal energy flows with its environment (Porter et al., 1973). 39
Figure 3.8 Model predicted seasonal behavior patterns for the desert iguana,
Diposaurus dorsalis, compared to behavioral observations shown as
solid bars. 40
Figure 4.1 Electromagnetic wavelength distribution of radiant energy. 44
Figure 4.2 Schematic of a chloroplast from a plant cell. 46
Figure 4.3 Photosystem II, the photolysis of H2O, and Photosystem I, producer of
ATP and NADPH, both occurring in the thylakoid membrane of the
chloroplast. 47
Figure 4.4 The Calvin cycle. Atoms are: black - carbon, white - hydrogen,
red - oxygen, pink - phosphorus. 48
Figure 4.5 ADP-ATP cycle fueled by the glycolysis of a glucose substrate. 50

xiii
xiv List of figures

Figure 5.1 Relationship between enthalpy (H), free energy (G), and entropy (S). 56
Figure 5.2 Summary of anaerobic respiration: the metabolic pathway of glycolysis. 60
Figure 5.3 The citric acid or Kreb’s cycle. 61
Figure 5.4 Radioactive elimination curve for two cryptozoan species (Parcoblatta sp.,
the wood roach, and Sphaeroderus stenostomus, a snail-feeding carabid
ground beetle) fed with 134Cs isotope-tagged food. 70
Figure 5.5 Idealized relationship between the metabolic rate of a mouse and
environmental temperature. BMR, basal metabolic rate; MR, maximal
rate; Tlc, lower critical temperature; Tuc, upper critical temperature; Tb,
body temperature. 75
Figure 5.6 Energy flow in an organism showing the categories of energy allocation
and loss. 76
Figure 6.1 Chemical reaction rate plotted against temperature,  C, change. 81
Figure 6.2 Comparison of respiration and photosynthesis with temperature. 82
Figure 6.3 Response of ectotherms and endotherms to increasing temperature. 83
Figure 6.4 The phenology, leaf expansion and senescence, and biomass growth
components of a soybean simulation model interact dynamically and
demonstrate how each are influenced by weather variables. TDM, Total
above ground dry matter, RDM, Below ground dry matter, LDM, Leaf dry
matter, STDM, Stem dry matter, SDM, Seed dry matter, CG, Crop growth,
SG, Seed Growth, MG, Relative maturity group, Stem Term, Stem
termination type (Indeterminate vs Semi-determinate), RH, Relative
humidity, ET, Reference evapotranspiration, Irrig., Irrigation. 90
Figure 6.5 Flowering phenophases in a temperate deciduous forest. 91
Figure 6.6 Phenological degree-day summation predicting flowering for 133 species
of vascular plants in an oak-hickory forest at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. 92
Figure 7.1 Scheme of matter and/or energy flow for a food chain or trophic level. MR,
total material removed by the organism or population; NU, material
removed, but not consumed; C, consumption; FU, rejecta; F, egesta; U,
excreta; A, assimilation; D, digested energy/material; P, production; Pg,
production due to body growth; Pr, production due to reproduction; R,
respiration; DB, changes in mass of the individual or population; E,
elimination. Nomenclature after Petrusewicz and Macfadyen, 1970. 98
Figure 7.2 The time delays between peaks of radioactivity concentrations in trophic
levels reflect the temporal delay in the flux of energy along food chains. 99
Figure 7.3 Fluctuation of biomass and numbers of a hypothetical population in time.
Assumptions are: a life span of 3 years, one litter per year, maturation in
1 year, completion of growth of young in 4 months, and a stable
population and reproductive rate from year to year. The insert shows
partitioning of biomass for net production per year. The net production
exceeds the biomass peak because of the production of animals dying prior
to the time of biomass peak. BO, biomass of current generation; B1,2 . n,
cumulative biomass from earlier generations; EO, elimination and MR,
material removed by predation. 104
Figure 7.4 Food web showing the interactions between organisms across trophic
levels in the Lake Ontario ecosystem. Primary producers are outlined in
green, primary consumers in orange, secondary consumers in blue, and
tertiary (apex) consumers in purple. Arrows point from an organism that is
consumed to the organism that consumes it. 105
Figure 7.5 A stylized trophic level pyramid with the area in each level representing
biomass or chemical energy content. 108
Figure 7.6 Ecological pyramids comparing biomass and energy for trophic levels
from different aquatic ecosystems. Notation: C1, primary consumer; C2,
secondary consumer; C3, tertiary consumer; P, Producer; S, saprotroph. 109
 List of figures xv

Figure 7.7 Heterotroph biomass as a function of primary production per unit

plant biomass. The six points represent ecosystem types: Cs, cone spring;
Df, deciduous forest; Po0, pond; Sm, salt marsh; Tu, tundra; Tf, tropical
forest. 114
Figure 8.1 Oxygen production during the light bottle:dark bottle experiment. 125
Figure 8.2 A diagrammatic representation of the pathways of energy and carbon flux
in a freshwater ecosystem: Silver Springs, Florida. Carbon values given in
Table 8.1. 131
Figure 8.3 Conceptual representations of stream spiraling and uptake length
affecting carbon metabolism in flowing waters. 134
Figure 8.4 The biogeochemical cycle of carbon in the ocean ecosystem. 137
Figure 8.5 The carbon cycle in a mesic deciduous forest in Tennessee. Trees, left to
right, represent understory, dominant Liriodendron tulipifera, and all other
overstory trees. Decomposers are separated by surface litter and soil zones.
Heterotrophs are invertebrates only for both herbivores and carnivores;
values do not include vertebrates. All values are in g C m2 for biomass
(boxes, upper left standing crop; lower right, annual increment) and in g C
m2 yr1 for fluxes (arrows). 141
Figure 8.6 Approximate turnover times in years representative for carbon in
major world ecosystem types: vegetation in green and soils/sediments in
brown, approximate average times in years derived from the sources
below. 153
Figure 9.1 The global distribution of biomes, or “ecofloristic zones” mapped by the
United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization. Source: Ruesch and
Gibbs, 2008. 159
Figure 9.2 Ecofloristic zones (biomes) as determined by mean annual temperature
and annual precipitation. 160
Figure 9.3 IPCC Tier-1 Global Biomass Carbon Map (above and below-ground) for
the Year 2000 in metric tons carbon per hectare (100 g m2). 174
Figure 9.4 Patterns of ocean circulation. 177
Figure 10.1 The natural global cycle of carbon showing the major reservoirs (pools)
and pathways (fluxes) of carbon flow in the biosphere, as illustrated in
the structure of an early, multidimensional box model. 185
Figure 10.2 Interannual fluctuations in atmospheric CO2 concentrations reveal
the “breathing” of the biosphere across the seasons of the year. 186
Figure 10.3 Contours of soil carbon (kg C m2) plotted on a Holdridge (1967)
life-zone chart. 201
Figure 10.4 A compartment model of the global carbon cycle with couplings to other
elements. The model construct incorporates rapid ecological processes (A)
with slow geologic processes (B) averaged over the latter portion of post-
Cambrian time. (A) Landscapes is early Holocene (recent) time had
approximately equal quantities of rapidly cycling (mostly photosynthetic)
tissue from woody and nonwoody parts of plants. The latter probably were
of negligible mass before the late Silurian Period about 400 million years
ago. Estimated values and uncertainties are given in Table 10.7. (B)
Summary of oceanic and lithospheric cycles. Note: 1 mol carbon
dioxide ¼ 12 g carbon. 202
Figure 11.1 Global atmospheric CO2 versus Mauna Loa CO2. Measurements at Mauna
Loa reflect the global average derived from many worldwide monitoring
stations. 212
Figure 11.2 Atmospheric CO2 levels (parts per million, ppm) over the past 10,000
years. Blue line from Taylor Dome, Antarctica ice cores. Green line
from Law Dome, Antarctica ice cores. Red line from direct atmospheric
measurements at Mauna Loa, Hawaii. 213
xvi List of figures

Figure 11.3 Global satellite measurements of atmospheric CO2 concentrations in July

2008 from the NASA Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on the Aqua
satellite. 214
Figure 11.4 The Greenhouse Effect. 215
Figure 11.5 Comparison of global temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentrations
from 1880 to 2010, with temperature deviations from historic norms. 216
Figure 11.6 An estimate in 1990 of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Values are
1012 g CO2-eq. 218
Figure 11.7 Fossil fuel consumption by the world. 223
Figure 11.8 Breakdown of annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions by industrial
sector in 2010. Values are 1012 g CO2-eq. 223
Figure 11.9 The world’s carbon cycle at the beginning of the 21st century as influenced
by human activities, showing how carbon atoms flow between various
reservoirs in the Earth system. Reservoir sizes are in Gt (1015 g) C; fluxes
are in Gt C yr1. The red numbers and arrows show the additional fluxes
and reservoir changes caused by humans, such as the burning of fossil
fuels and land use changes, averaged over 2000e2009. 228
Figure 11.10 The airborne CO2 fraction showing global carbon dioxide emissions
(as gigatons of carbon without oxygen molecular weight added) from 1960
through 2012, and the amount of emitted CO2 that has remained in the
atmosphere. 231
Figure 11.11 The biological pump of carbon in the ocean. 236
Figure 11.12 Future atmospheric CO2 levels as projected for the four RCP emission
scenarios (IPCC SRES Report, 2007). All forcing agents’ atmospheric
CO2-equivalent concentrations (in parts-per-million-by-volume (ppmv))
according to four RCPs. 237
Figure 11.13 Radiative-forcing components used by the IPCC in 2007 in the calculation
of climate outcomes from four different representative concentration
pathways (RCPs) dependent upon possible future levels of greenhouse gas
emissions. 238
Figure 11.14 The 10 hottest years globally. 241
Figure 11.15 Despite technological improvements that increase corn yields, extreme
weather events have caused significant yield reductions in some years. 245
Figure 12.1 Schematic diagram illustrating current and/or projected impacts of climate
changes on major components of marine and coastal ecosystems. 254
Figure 12.2 Past and future ocean heat content changes (OHC). Annual observational
OHC changes are consistent with each other and consistent with the
ensemble means of the CMIP5 models (Taylor et al., 2012) for historical
simulations pre-2005 and projections from 2005 to 2017, giving
confidence in future projections to 2100 (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5) (see the
supplementary materials). The mean projected OHC changes and their
90% confidence intervals between 2081 and 2100 are shown in bars at the
right. The inset depicts the detailed OHC changes after January 1990,
using the monthly OHC changes updated to September 2018 (Cheng et al.,
2017), along with the other annual observed values superposed. 256
Figure 12.3 Worldwide greenhouse gas emission in 2005. 260
Figure 12.4 Carbon flows in the energy system and sources of emissions in the
United States in 1995 in millions of metric tons (1012 g C). 265
Figure 12.5 Carbon intensity of electricity: history and forward trends necessary
to reach a zero-carbon electricity grid by mid-century. 282
Figure 12.6 The world’s economies vary considerably in how efficiently their
GDPs utilize carbon-based fuels. 283
List of tables

Table 2.1 Units of measure for energy in its various forms and transformations. 6
Table 3.1 Transmission (langleys min
1) of direct solar radiation through a canopy of
red pine plantation. 20
Table 3.2 Total emissivity, ε, all wavelengths and short-wave absorptivity of common
bodies occurring in the natural environment (Handbook of Chemistry and
Physics). 23
Table 3.3 Typical albedo values for environmental surfaces on earth. 24
Table 3.4 Typical thermal conductivities of environmental media, biological
constituents, and other reference materials at ordinary temperatures. 25
Table 3.5 Convection coefficients (cal cm
2 min
1 oC) for free convection in laminar
flow. DT is the temperature difference in oC between the surface of the object
and the surrounding air. L is the dimension of the plate in the direction of
flow. 26
Table 3.6 Rates of heat transfer (cal.cm
2min
1) for forced convection across a flat
plate as a model for a plant leaf in the environment. Values
(cal.cm
2min
1) are a function of the temperature differential between
surface and air, dimension of the surface, and wind speed. 27
Table 4.1 The energy value of different wavelengths of solar radiation. 45
Table 4.2 Efficiencies of photosynthetic radiant energy conversion into biomass by
plants. 53
Table 5.1 Summary of aerobic respiration: The efficiency of ATP production by
glycolysis. 62
Table 5.2 Thermal equivalents (kcal L
1) for different compounds. 64
Table 5.3 Heats of combustion to H2O (L) and CO2 (g) at 25 C and constant pressure. 66
Table 5.4 Energy values for plant parts and animal taxa. 68
Table 5.5 Food assimilation for different foods and by different trophic level
consumers reported in the scientific literature. 69
Table 5.6 Values for the body weight exponential function, b, for different animal
types. 72
Table 5.7 The relationship between food energy and heat production, the calorigenic
effect or specific dynamic action (SDA), in a dog fed 100 kcal day-1 of
lean meat (protein) [columns 1-4], compared with the food energy and heat
production equivalents to be obtained from a pure fat [columns 5-6] or
carbohydrate [columns 7-8] diet. 73
Table 5.8 Comparison of dietary energy utilization in the domestic pig and cow (values
are % food energy ingested). 77
Table 5.9 Rate of production and production efficiency in relation to dietary energy
intake in farmed animals. 78

xvii
xviii List of tables

Table 6.1 The development time of sea urchin eggs as a function of temperature
demonstrates how energy (heat) affects biological processes, and how
acclimation to warmer summer temperatures, or cooler winter temperatures,
affects development. Natural populations of Paracentrotus lividus range
between 13  C
28 C. 85
Table 6.2 Some examples of adaptive strategies of plants and animals to their energy
environment. 86
Table 6.3 Some aspects of an energy budget for hummingbirds. 88
Table 7.1 Comparison of productivity between mouse, deer, and elephant. 104
Table 7.2 Ecological energetic efficiencies. 110
Table 7.3 Values reported for ecological energetic efficiencies for different trophic
levels. 112
Table 7.4 Calculated ingestion, production, respiration, and egestion by heterotrophs in
a grassland ecosystem in kcal m
2 yr
1 per 100 kcal m
1 yr
1 net annual
primary production. 113
Table 7.5 Ecological energetic efficiencies for three different ecosystems
(cal cm
2 yr
1). 116
Table 8.1 Comparison of the carbon budgets of five aquatic ecosystems: Spartina Salt
Marsh, GA (Teal, 1962); Silver Springs, FL (Odum, 1957); oligotrophic
Lake Eckarfjärden, Sweden (Andersson and Kumblad, 2006); Lake
Washington, WA (Eggers et al., 1978); eutrophic Lake Lawrence, MI
(Wetzel and Rich, 1973). Units are: fluxes in kg C m
2 yr
1, standing crop in
kg C m
1). 132
Table 8.2 Mean values and ranges for GPP, RE, and NEP for aquatic ecosystems Values
are g O2 m
2 day
1). 142
Table 8.3 Comparison of the carbon budgets of eight terrestrial ecosystems: Spruce
Forest, Sweden (Karlberg et al., 2007); Mesic Tulip Poplar forest, TN
(Reichle et al., 1973); Oak-Pine forest, NY (Woodwell and Botkin, 1970);
Tropical Rain Forest, Thailand (Tan et al., 2010); Shortgrass Prairie, CO
(Andrews et al., 1974); Tundra (after Reichle, 1975); Agricultural
ecosystems values from L. Ryszkowski (Reichle, 1981). Units are: fluxes in
kg C m
2 yr
1, standing crop in kg C m
2). 143
Table 8.4 Comparative metabolic parameters for six different forest ecosystems. All
values above the dotted line are in kg C m
2 and kg C m
2 yr
1; values
below the dotted line are dimensionless indices. 147
Table 8.5 Comparison carbon fluxes of five forest ecosystem using eddy covariance:
WB¼Walker Branch; TN, MMSF ¼ Morgan Monroe State Forest, IN;
HF¼Harvard Forest, MA; UMBS¼University of Michigan Biological
Station, MI; WC¼Willow Creek, WI. Units are: fluxes in kg C m
2 yr
1,
standing crop in kg Cm
2. 150
Table 9.1 Conversion factors of units of measure for mass and energy values. 159
Table 9.2 Summary of global area, annual net primary production (NPP), plant carbon
content, and soil carbon content in broadly categorized terrestrial
ecosystems. 162
Table 9.3 Primary production and biomass estimates for the biosphere. 164
Table 9.4 Net primary productivity in the ocean. 167
Table 9.5 Secondary production (NSP) by consumers in different ecosystems. Values
are for specific consumer groups, except where indicated by
“A” ¼ productivity for the entire animal trophic level. 170
Table 9.6 Various estimates of total global production in carbon and energy units. 172
Table 9.7 Ranking of the net primary productivity of the biomes based upon the values
reported by the references cited in Chapter 8 and Tables 9.2 and 9.3. 173
 List of tables xix

Table 9.8 Biomass of ecosystems of the main biomes each with distinct vegetative
structure. Metric ton ha
1 (¼ 102 g m
2). 176
Table 10.1 Values, and uncertainties of parameters, in the global carbon cycle. 189
Table 10.2 Units of measure for the global carbon cycle. 191
Table 10.3 Atmospheric carbon dioxide fluxes (Gt C yr
1 or 1015 g C yr
1). Errors
represent  standard deviation of uncertainty estimates and not interannual
variability which is larger. The atmospheric increase (first line) results from
fluxes to and from the atmosphere: positive fluxes are inputs to the
atmosphere (emissions); negative fluxes are losses from the atmosphere
(sinks); and numbers in parentheses are ranges. Note that the total sink of
anthropogenic CO2 is well constrained. Thus, the ocean-to-atmosphere and
land-to-atmosphere fluxes are negatively correlated: if one is larger the other
must be smaller to match the total sink, and vice versa. 194
Table 10.4 Estimated oceanic carbon pools. 195
Table 10.5 Carbon in major pools of the biosphere. Contemporary estimates using
Whittaker & Likens, 1973 and IPCC 2014 in parentheses. Percentages of
total carbon pools (columns 2 and 3) are based upon Reiner’s 1973
calculation using Bolin’s 1970 values. 198
Table 10.6 Carbon balance in terrestrial detritus by biome (Schlesinger, 1979). 200
Table 10.7 Simplified global carbon inventory and budget estimates for recent, early
Holocene times. Values here are 1015 g C yr
1. 203
Table 11.1 Internet sources of data relative to the issue of climate change. 211
Table 11.2 Methane sources and sinks, both natural and anthropogenic (Schlesinger,
1997; after Prather et al., 1995). Units are 1012 g CH4 yr
1. 219
Table 11.3 Warming increases ( C) projected by the radiative forcing functions resulting
from different assumptions of GHG emission scenarios. 242
Table 11.4 Estimated global NPP by terrestrial ecosystems. 242
Table 11.5 Future sea level rise (in meters) projected from different radiative forcing
function scenarios from assumptions of different GHG emissions. 248
Table 12.1 Historical timeline of milestones in establishing international climate policy. 261
Table 12.2 Cumulative CO2 emissions limits from a 2011 emissions baseline necessary
to limit global warming to <1.5 C and <2 C, with associated probabilities. 263
Table 12.3 The lifecycle carbon intensity of electricity sources: greenhouse gas
emissions per kilowatt. 266
Table 12.4 The potential of different terrestrial biomes to sequester carbon that might be
sustained over a 25e50 year period. 270
Table 12.5 Relative concentration pathways (RCPs) with pathway descriptions and
integrated assessment models used by IPCC for the year 2100. 277
Table 12.6 Future sea level rise (in meters) projected from different radiative forcing
function scenarios from assumptions of different GHG emissions. 279
Table 12.7 Projected annual economic damage estimates (in 2015 $) in the United States
by 2090. 280
Table 12.8 Estimated global macro-economic costs in 2030 relative to the baseline for
least-cost trajectories toward different, long-term stabilization levels. 281
Author Bio

David E. Reichle was the Associate Labora-

tory Director of the Oak Ridge National Lab-
oratory for Environmental, Life, and Social
Sciences, and the former Director of its
Environmental Sciences Division. He was also
an adjunct Professor of Ecology at the Uni-
versity of Tennessee. He has authored over
100 scientific articles on radionuclides in the
environment and the metabolism of ecosys-
tems, edited four books on productivity and
carbon metabolism of ecosystems, and led
development of several seminal government
reports on greenhouse gas reduction technol-
ogies and carbon sequestration. He has served
on many scientific advisory boards for the Department of Energy, the National
Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National
Academy of Sciences, and other academic institutions and business organi-
zations. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science and recipient of the Scientific Achievement Award from the Inter-
national Union of Forest Research Organizations, a Distinguished Service
Award from the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Muskingum University
Distinguished Alumni Service Award. He also served on the national board of
governors of the Nature Conservancy and as Chairman of TNC’s Tennessee
state chapter.

xxi
Foreword

Bioenergetics has long been a subject of research in animal husbandry and

ecological research, where it served as an organizing principle in early
ecosystem research (Odum, 1959). The metabolism of ecosystems and
ecological energetics are subject areas that I always found to be fascinating,
and ones that were researched intensely at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory
(ORNL), in Oak Ridge Tennessee. I was recruited to ORNL as a new PhD
from Northwestern University in 1964 to study the behavior of radionuclides
in food chainsduptake, bioaccumulation, and potential pathways leading to
human exposure. My postdoctoral fellowship was sponsored by what was then
the US Atomic Energy Commission (now the US Department of Energy). One
of the little-known facts in the history of American science is that the AEC
was the first significant sponsor of modern ecological research in the United
States, this role only several decades later being assumed by the National
Science Foundation (Egerton, 2017). The Manhattan Project’s 1943 Clinton
Laboratories, managed by the University of Chicago’s Metallurgical Labora-
tory, was the predecessor of ORNL; Union Carbide Corporation assumed re-
sponsibilities in 1947. By the time that I had arrived, WWII was over and
research had shifted to the peaceful uses of atomic energy. My job title was
“biophysicist” in the Radiation Ecology Section of the Health Physics Divi-
sion; the Section was later to become the internationally renowned Ecological
Sciences Division at ORNL (Auerbach, 1993). Our research team’s scope
quickly grew from examining the fate and effects of radionuclides in food
chains leading to humans to studying the natural biogeochemical cycles that
governed the movement of radionuclides in the environmentdall of which
were ultimately regulated by the metabolism of ecosystems.
Few in the scientific community, much less in the general public, knew
what ecology was when the US Atomic Energy Commission began its
ecological research programs in the early 1950s (Reichle and Auerbach,
2003). These programs, which antedated major support for ecosystem research
by the National Science Foundation by several decades, were the foundation
for modern ecosystem research in the United States (Coleman, 2010). Since
ecologists at ORNL had been researching ecosystem carbon metabolism, we
became the US R&D center for forest ecology and ecosystem modeling when
US participation (1964e74) began in the International Biological Program
(Smith, 1968; NAS, 2019). International collaboration continued for many
years thereafter, and results of research on the deciduous forest biome

xxiii
xxiv Foreword

culminated with publication of Dynamic Properties of Forest Ecosystems

(Reichle, 1981). This research experience was an important reason why the
AEC’s successor, the Energy Research and Development Administration, and
later the US Department of Energy (DOE), became a leading US agency
studying the global carbon cycle.
The mission of DOE and its national laboratories was to promote the safe
development of all energy technologies. Both the scientific experience gained
from studying the carbon metabolism of ecosystems (Reichle and Auerbach,
1972) and the development of climate models to follow global fallout from
weapons testing and the concern about a “nuclear winter” from nuclear
weapons deployment, the national laboratories became early leaders in climate
change research. The scientific experience gained in early environmental
studies of the nuclear industry came full circle in the 1980s to examine the
environmental consequences of a fossil fuelebased energy economy.
Ecological energetics is the study of the metabolism of plants, animals,
microbes, and ecosystems. Knowledge about the functioning of ecological
systems is necessary for our understanding of the metabolism of the biosphere,
essential in adressing human-induced climate change, and quite possibly
critical to protecting our global environment. This book is the product of a
course in ecological energetics that I offered in the early 1970s in the then
Graduate Program in Ecology at the University of Tennessee. I had intended
the syllabus to be the basis for a textbook in bioenergetics, but somehow never
found the time to write the book. Now 45 years later in retirement, I have the
time, the field of ecology has matured, and bioenergetics, while an interesting
chapter in basic ecology texts of the 1950e70s, has now assumed new societal
relevance. Ecological energetics is the foundation for both understanding the
metabolism of the biosphere and also the basis for addressing the potential
future environmental impacts of climate change.
This book is a journey in time, scale, and complexity. It will be a journey
following the flux of solar energy from the sun, and carbon from the atmo-
sphere, through the living systems on earth. It will be a journey in scaledfrom
milligrams to gigatons, from seconds to years, from square centimeters to
hectares, and from the cell to the biosphere. This journey has rules which will
govern our passagedthe principles of thermodynamics, biochemistry,
physiology, and ecology. Let us begin.

SUGGESTED READING
Coleman, D.C., 2010. Big Ecology: The Emergence of Ecosystem Science. Univ. Calif. Press,
Berkeley-Los Angeles-London, p. 236. https://epdf.pub/big-ecology-the-emergence-of-
ecosystem-science.html.
Egerton, F.N., 2017. History of Ecological Sciences, Part 59: Niches, Biomes, Ecosystems,
and Systems. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320227603_History_of_Ecological_
Sciences_Part_59_Niches_Biomes_Ecosystems_and_Systems/.
 Foreword xxv

Odum, E.P., 1959. Fundamentals of Ecology, 2nd Ed. W. B. Sanders Co., Philadelphia and London,
p. 546.
Reichle, D.E., Auerbach, S.I., 2003. U.S. RadioecologicL Research Programs of the Atomic
Energy Commission in the 1950s. ORNL/TM-2003/280. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak
Ridge, TN. http://www.osti.gov/bridge/.
Smith, F.E., 1968. The international biological program and the science of ecology. Proc. Nat’l
Acad. Sci. USA 60 (1), 5e11. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC539127/.
Acknowledgments

My career in ecology has been stimulated by a large number of individuals: my

graduate school professor, Orlando Park of Northwestern University, one of
the authors of “The Great Apes,” Alee, Emerson Park, Park, and Schmidt’s
Principles of Animal Ecology (1949), one of the first and perhaps best ecology
texts from the “Chicago School” of ecology; Stanley Auerbach, founder of the
Ecological Sciences Division (ESD) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory
(ORNL), and mentors and colleagues in ESD: Dac Crossley, Jerry Olson,
George Van Dyne, Frank Harris; early leaders in ecological energetics:
Howard Odum, Gene Odum, George Woodwell, Bob Whittaker, Dick Wiegert,
David Gates, Jerry Franklin; European ecologists John Phillipson, Amian
Macfadyen, John Satchel, Kasimierz Petrusewicz, Lech Ryszkowski, Paul
Duvigneaud, and Helmut Lieth influenced me profoundly, both personally and
through their seminal publications. The book has its origin in a course in
ecological energetics that I offered in the Graduate Program in Ecology at the
University of Tennessee, decades of research at ORNL, and has been nurtured
through the encouragement and patience of my wife, Donna. Brenda Wyatt
provided invaluable technical records assistance, and I am grateful to ORNL
for providing access to IT library resources.

xxvii
Chapter 1

An introduction to ecological
energetics and the global
carbon cycle

1.1 Recommended Reading 3

Energy is essential for life on Earth. An organism with a positive energy

balance is generally a successful organism in nature. Organisms and ecosys-
tems have, consequently, evolved as highly efficient thermodynamic systems.
Bioenergetics deals with the energy requirements and the processing of energy
by organisms. The term is most often used in reference to animals, but also
applies to plants. Plants have evolved the unique photosynthetic process, using
sunlight to split water molecules and manufacture organic carbon molecules
from atmospheric CO2, thus converting radiant energy into chemical energy to
support their metabolic requirements. In animal systems bioenergetics en-
compasses the procurement of the chemical energy in food, the digestion of
food, subsequent metabolism, and the eventual energy expenditures required
for living and reproducing. Bioenergetics involves, therefore, many aspects of
the organism’s physiology, thermal relationships, and behavior, and becomes
very complex and complicated to quantify. Bioenergetics has become a very
sophisticated tool in animal husbandry, for it deals with the efficiency by
which animal protein can be produced economically. By the 1960s, bio-
energetics as applied to free-living animals had bifurcated into two fields of
study, one approach emphasizing behavioral biology where the animal’s ac-
tivity patterns were studied in relation to its energy balance with its environ-
ment, and another physiological approach dealing with the metabolism of the
free-living organism. In actuality both these approaches are necessary to un-
derstand the thermodynamics of organisms in nature (Reichle et al., 1975).
By the 1970s the growing field of ecology began to utilize bioenergetics to
understand the functioning of entire ecosystems. Thus, the study of ecological,
or ecosystem, energetics developed. Ecosystem energetics addresses the en-
ergy balance of the entire ecosystem and all its trophic levels. It consists of the
ecosystem’s metabolismdits primary productivity, trophic level exchanges,

The Global Carbon Cycle and Climate Change. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-820244-9.00001-9

Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1
2 The Global Carbon Cycle and Climate Change

turnover and decomposition of detritus, growth, and reproduction. Since bio-

logically utilized energy is the energy stored in carbon molecules, ecosystem
metabolism necessarily deals with the carbon balance of the entire ecosystem
(Lindeman, 1942; Odum, 1957; Smalley, 1960; Teal, 1962; Macfadyen, 1964;
Phillipson, 1966; Woodwell and Botkin, 1970; Reichle et al., 1973). Besides
plant photosynthesis and trophic level energetics, understanding the carbon
metabolism of the entire ecosystem, above and below ground, includes death
and decomposition to complete the ecosystem’s carbon balance (net ecosystem
production) with the environment. This academically intriguing subject sud-
denly took on tremendous societal relevance beginning in the 1980s, with the
growing concern over the combustion of fossil fuels and the resulting CO2
emissions to the atmosphere, leading to the greenhouse effect and global
warming.
What did we know about the global cycle of carbon? And, when did we
know it (Rich, 2018)? Ecosystem carbon balances for different types of eco-
systems, when used with the geographic distribution of ecosystem types, or
biomes, formed the basis for early global carbon balance calculations (Craig,
1957; Revelle and Suess, 1957; Bolin, 1970). As the modeling of ecosystem
bioenergetics advanced, it became possible to construct dynamic global carbon
models of the biosphere, which were functionally based and could, conse-
quently, permit questions to be asked about the biosphere’s response to
changing atmospheric CO2 levels or rising temperatures or changing land use
cover or feedback loops such as oxidation of Arctic tundra, glacial melting,
ocean outgassing, etc (Trabalka, 1985; Trabalka and Reichle, 1986). These
questions remain very pertinent and central to the debate today on the con-
sequences of climate change.
This text begins with an introduction to ecological energetics in Chapter 1.
Chapter 2 defines energy terms, introduces the physical laws of energy, and
discusses how the basic principles of thermodynamics govern biological as
well as physical systems. Chapter 3 is a primer on energy relationships be-
tween organisms and the environment. Chapter 4 covers the biological energy
transformations of photosynthesis and energy conversion efficiencies. In
Chapter 5 the energy processing by animals, their metabolism, and energy
budgets are examined. Chapter 6 examines how species adapt thermally to
their environments. Chapter 7 addresses the energy exchange between plants
and animals, ecological energetics, food chains, and the trophic level concept.
Then in Chapter 8, the complexities of energy flow in ecosystems are covered.
Subsequently, Chapter 9 examines the concept of ecosystem productivity; and
then in Chapter 10 the global carbon cycle and the biosphere are reviewed.
Chapter 11 examines how the anthropogenic emissions of CO2 and land use
change have altered the natural global carbon cycle and have influenced
climate change. Ultimately, humankind will have policy decisions to make
about fossil energy use to avoid the negative climatic consequences of having
changed the biosphere’s carbon cycle (Chapter 12).
 An introduction to ecological energetics Chapter | 1 3

Before continuing, I need to make several brief comments about references.

Much of the ecological energetics and productivity data from the decades of the
mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, particularly during the International Biological
Program, are contained in the proceedings of international conferences, which
are now nearly inaccessible to many. I have identified these publications and
extracted pertinent information from these sources so that it can remain in the
mainstream of scientific literature. Secondly, I have sought permission to
reproduce select graphs and illustrations contained in benchmark publications
under copyright by publishers of books and scientific journals, so that they are
available to those without the privileges of access to these sources through
institutional library IT agreements. And lastly, when possible, I have referenced
key data whenever they were published in government-sponsored symposia and
reports; and since they are in the public domain, I have provided their urls for
convenient, direct IT access by the reader.

1.1 Recommended Reading

Bolin, B., Degens, E.T., Kempe, S., Ketner, P. (Eds.), 1979. The Global Carbon Cycle. SCOPE, 13.
John Wiley and Sons, New York, p. 491. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/40170880_
The_Global_Carbon_Cycle_SCOPE_Report_13/.
Odum, H.T., 1957. Trophic structure and productivity of Silver Springs, Florida. Ecol. Monogr. 25,
55e112. https://doi.org/10.2307/1948571.
Phillipson, J., 1966. Ecological energetics. St. Martin’s Press, New York, p. 57. https://www.
worldcat.org/title/ecological-energetics/oclc/220312888/.
Reichle, D.E., O’Neill, R.V., Harris, W.F., 1975. Principles of Energy and Material Exchange in
Ecosystems. In: W. H. van Dobben and R. H. Lowe-McConnell (Ed.), Unifying Concepts in
Ecology. W. Junk Pub, The Hague, pp. 27e43, 302 pp. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.
1007/978-94-010-1954-5_3/.
Chapter 2

The physical and chemical

bases of energy

2.1 Energy, work, and power

Calories and Joules
2.2 The different forms of energy
Chemical energy
Radiant energy
Heat energy
2.3 The Laws of Thermodynamics
The First Law of Thermodynamics
Work
Enthalpy
The Second Law of Thermodynamics
Entropy
2.4 Gaia hypothesis
2.5 Carbon and energy
The forms of carbon
Measures of carbon
Carbon chemistry
2.6 Recommended reading

There is no better way to begin the study of ecological energetics than by

starting with an understanding of the pertinent definitions and terminology of
physics and physical chemistry. Learn this terminology early, become
comfortable with the units of measure, know the basic concepts, and bio-
energetics will come a lot easier.

2.1 Energy, work, and power

Energy is the capacity to do work. The unit of measure for energy is the erg,
which is the work performed when a force of one dyne acts through a distance
of one centimeter. The unit of force, the dyne, yields to a mass of one gram the
acceleration of one centimeter per second (cm s
1). Since an erg of energy is
such a small quantity, a larger unit, the joule, which is equal to 107 ergs, be-
comes a more convenient unit of measure. A unit of heat used frequently in

The Global Carbon Cycle and Climate Change. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-820244-9.00002-0

Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 5
6 The Global Carbon Cycle and Climate Change

physical chemistry is the calorie (¼ 4.184 J). The calorie is the heat energy
required to raise the temperature of one gram of water from 14.5 oC to 15.5oC.
The calorie is defined as being equal to 4.1840 absolute joules. The calorie is a
relatively small unit of measure, and for most chemical and biological cal-
culations the kilocalorie (103 calories) is used. The kilocalorie (kcal) is the unit
which is typically used in discussing dietary intake and is often written as
Calorie. A Calorie equals 103 calories, or a kcal.

Calories and Joules. A calorie is the energy needed to raise the temperature of
1 g of water through 1  C (also expressed as 4.1868 J, the unit of energy in the
International System of Units). A joule is the energy expended when 1 kg is
moved 1 m by a force of 1 Newton (N). Use of joules is now recommended by
international convention and is the preferred standard unit to measure heat
(FAO, 2003). Nutritionists and food scientists concerned with large amounts of
energy generally use kiloJoules (kJ ¼ 103 J) or megaJoules (MJ ¼ 106 J). For
many decades, food energy has been expressed in calories, and studies in the
field of ecological energetics have traditionally used calories as the measure for
energy. In order to retain consistency with research reported in the scientific
literature, values used for energy in this book are in calories. The conversion
factors for joules and calories are: 1 cal ¼ 4.184 J and 1 J ¼ 0.239 cal.

2.2 The different forms of energy

Energy can exist in various forms, but those of greatest importance to living
organisms are mechanical, chemical, radiant, and heat energy (Table 2.1).
Mechanical energy has two forms: kinetic and potential. Kinetic energy, or
free energy, can be described as the “useful energy” which a body possesses by

TABLE 2.1 Units of measure for energy in its various forms and
transformations.

Energy Intensity Capacity

Mechanical (ergs) Force (dynes) Change in distance (cm)
-1 1
Kinetic (ergs) Velocity (cm s ) /2 Mass (g)
-2
Potential (ergs) Height x accereraltion (cm s ) Mass (g)

1
Chemical (calories) Heat of combustion (cal g ) Mass (g)

2
Radiant (calories) Radiation flux (cal cm ) Surface area (cm2)
Heat (calories) Difference in temperature (o C) Heat capacity (cal per oC)

Vol. expansion (ergs) Pressure (dynes cm-2) Change in volume (cm3)

Electrical (joules) Difference in potential (volts) Coulombs (amps x sec.)

1
Surface (ergs) Surface tension (ergs cm ) Change in area (cm2)
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
days,” and to washing and getting up a pair of cuffs with her own
hands.
“You look quite smart, Maddie,” said Laurence, as she completed
her toilet, and came and showed herself to him.
“Yes; I don’t look so very, very poor, do I?”
“No-o,” rather dubiously. Then he added, with a smile, “No one
who looks at your face will think of your clothes; and, indeed,
Maddie, it is not fit that such a pretty girl as you are should be
travelling alone, and third class, such a long journey.”
“Rubbish! rubbish! rubbish!” she answered emphatically. “I’ll wear
a veil, if that will please you; and, indeed, no one will notice me. If
they do, they will think I am some poor girl going to a situation. You
think every one must admire what you thought pretty, you stupid
Laurence; but I heard Mrs. Kane saying the other day that I’d grown
‘awfully plain.’ And it’s not my face Mrs. Harper will notice—you may
be certain of that!”
Ten minutes later she had kissed the sleeping baby, taken leave of
Laurence, given many whispered directions to Mrs. Kane’s niece,
and a whole half-sovereign from her little fund; and then, with a
beating heart, started on foot for a distant terminus. No, she would
not take even a twopenny fare in a ’bus; she must save every penny,
and she would have plenty of rest in the train. And so she had, of a
sort, on the hard, upright seat of a crowded third-class carriage for
eight mortal hours. There is not much repose in such a situation, nor
much sleep to be obtained; and the train roared along through the
inky black night, and tore through small stations with a shriek of
contempt that shook them to their foundations, and nearly shook the
teeth of the unhappy third-class passengers out of their heads. After
a whole night’s travelling of this uneasy description, Madeline arrived
at her destination—Riverside—and quickly alighted on the platform.
One trouble was spared her—luggage.
She went and washed her face and hands, arranged her hair,
shook off some of the dust in the waiting-room, invested fourpence in
a bun and cup of coffee, and felt herself sufficiently fortified to
encounter Mrs. Harper—but not Miss Selina. Another journey by rail,
a short walk, and she found herself once more on the familiar
doorstep of Harperton House, and rang timidly.
A strange maid (who knew not the delinquencies of Miss West)
opened the door, and was evidently surprised to behold such an
early visitor.
She informed her that Mrs. Harper was not down yet, nor Miss
Harper, and showed her into the drawing-room, which was in
process of being dusted. Here she waited for some time, whilst a
sound of hasty footsteps and voices was very audible above her
head. She looked around the room, and felt as if she had only
quitted it yesterday. And oh! what a gap there was in her life between
the last time she stood there, listening to Miss Selina’s spiteful
remonstrances, and now! But the room was precisely the same.
There was the best piano, on which she had had many a music-
lesson. There was Alice Burns’ big coloured-chalk drawing, Amy
Watson’s two water-colours; Florence Blewitt’s brass work, and
Isabella Jones’s photograph screen—all votive offerings to the
Harper family, and advertisements to pupils’ relatives who came to
make inquiries about the school.
Presently the door opened, and Miss Harper—if we may dare to
say so—burst into the room.
“Oh, Madeline!” she exclaimed, “so it’s you. She only said a young
lady. How more than thankful I am to see you!” shaking hands as
she spoke, and looking into her face with eager scrutiny. “You are
thin—very thin; but thin or fat, you are welcome back. Come up at
once to my mother’s room; she is dressing. She does not come
down early now, and she wants to see you” (here was an honour).
“Come, the girls are all in the schoolroom. The breakfast-bell will be
rung in ten minutes,” turning to lead the way. Then she paused for a
moment, with the handle in her hand. “You have heard about
Selina?” she asked, with a red spot on either cheek, and a spark in
either eye. “What! Have you not heard?” she added hurriedly.
Miss Selina! It was not of Miss Selina Madeline had come to hear;
and she shook her head and answered, “No; is she dead?”
 “Dead! She’s married. She married nearly a year ago,” returned
her sister, impressively, “Mr. Murphy, the red-haired curate. She—
she behaved atrociously. Don’t mention her to my mother, nor ask
about her, on any account. We don’t speak,” flinging the door wide
as she gasped out the last sentence.
All the reply Madeline made was “Indeed!” But nevertheless she
felt a very lively satisfaction to hear that her old enemy was no
longer an inmate of Harperton, and had gone away, like herself, in
disgrace.
“You will find my mother rather changed,” whispered Miss Harper,
as she rapidly preceded her upstairs. “She’s had a slight stroke. All
the troubles and annoyance about Selina were enough to kill her,
and she is not what she was. She never comes down till the
afternoon; but take no notice.”
“Madeline!” cried the old lady, as Madeline entered her room and
beheld her propped up in bed, in her best day cap. “This is too good
to be true! I scarcely expected it, though I have advertised every day
in the Times. Come here, my dear, and kiss me”—tendering a
withered cheek. The old lady’s mind was certainly affected, thought
her late pupil. That she who had been so ignominiously cast out
should be thus welcomed back, and with kisses, was scarcely
credible, unless viewed from the idea that Mrs. Harper had become
imbecile in the meanwhile. But no, the reason of this astonishing
change from the frost of neglect to the sun of welcome—affectionate
welcome—was a very potent one indeed. It was nothing less than
the prospect of a large sum of money.
Since Madeline had been banished, nothing had gone well. Her
place had been taken by a governess who had actually required a
salary, as well as civility, and had been a great encumbrance and
expense. Then came Selina’s wicked tampering with her sister’s
sweet-heart, a heart-burning scandal, family linen sent to the public
wash, and a serious falling off in the school. Things were going
badly. Every step was down hill—one girl leaving after another, and
there were many vacant places at the long dinner-table.
 At last came a letter—from Mr. West of all people! enclosing a
large draft on his bankers, and announcing his return a wealthy and
successful man. The draft was to pay for two years’ schooling, with
interest up to date; but for a whole year Miss West had been
elsewhere! How could they honestly claim these badly-wanted
pounds? They had banished the man’s daughter, and the money
must be restored.
Viewed now—in a softer light, through a golden atmosphere—
Madeline’s deeds were excusable. The poor girl had been Selina’s
victim, and therefore more to be pitied than blamed. Madeline must
be sought and, if possible, discovered and reinstated as if there had
been no hiatus, as if nothing disagreeable had occurred. And we
have seen the “state of life” in which Madeline had been found.
“Letitia, do you go down now, and presently send up a nice
breakfast for two—two fresh eggs—whilst I have a talk with dear
Madeline.” Thus the old lady, who still held the reins of authority,
although she had lost the use of her right hand; and Letitia, having
previously rehearsed the whole “talk” with her mother, and fearing
that “too many cooks might spoil the broth,” departed with meek
obedience.
“Take off your hat and jacket, my love, and make yourself at home.
I am sure you will not be surprised to hear—yes, put them on the
ottoman—that your father is alive and well, and returning an
immensely”—dwelling lovingly on the word—“rich man.”
Madeline’s heart bounded into her mouth, her face became like
flame. So her presentiment had come true!
“Ah! I see you are surprised, darling: so were we when we got his
letter, a week ago. Here, bring me that case, the green one on the
little table, and I’ll read it to you at once—or you may read it yourself
if you like, Madeline.”
Madeline did as requested, picked out a foreign letter in a well-
known hand, and sat down to peruse it beside Mrs. Harper’s bed.
That lady, having assumed her spectacles for the nonce, scanned
her late pupil’s face with keen intentness.
This is what the letter said:—
“Royal Kangaroo Club,
“Collins Street, Melbourne.
“My dear Mrs. Harper,
“After such a long silence, you will be surprised to see my
writing, but here I am. I am afraid Madeline has been rather
uneasy about me—and, indeed, no wonder. I met with some
terrible losses in bank shares two years ago: nearly the whole
of my life’s earnings were engulphed in an unparalleled
financial catastrophe. The anxiety and trouble all but killed me
—threw me into a fever, from the effects of which I was laid
up for months—many months, and when I again put my
shoulder to the wheel I was determined not to write home until
I was as rich a man as ever. I knew that you, who had had the
care of Madeline since she was seven, would trust me, and
everything would go on as usual. I had always been such
punctual pay, you would give me time for once. I am now, I
am glad to say, a wealthy man. Some lots of land I bought
years ago have turned up trumps—in short, gold. I am not
going to speculate again, but am returning home a millionaire,
and Maddie shall keep house in London, and hold up her
head among the best. Stray bits of news have drifted to my
ears. I heard a foolish story about some beggarly barrister or
curate and her. A schoolgirl wrote it to her brother; but I am
certain it was only girls’ tittle-tattle. Surely you would never
allow my heiress to play the fool! If she did, she knows very
well that I would disown her. I am a fond father in my way, and
a good father, as you can testify, but I’ll have no pauper
fortune-hunters, or puling love affairs. A hint from you to
Madeline, that at the least nonsense of that sort I marry again,
and let her please herself, will be, at any rate, a stitch in time.
She has had a good education. She can earn her bread; but I
know it is not necessary to continue this subject. You are a
sensible woman; Madeline is a sensible girl, if she is my
daughter. And I have great views for her, very great views. I
shall follow this letter in about six weeks’ time, and will write
 again before I leave. I shall come by the Ophir, Orient Line,
and you and Maddie can meet me in Plymouth. I enclose a
draft on my agents for six hundred pounds, five hundred for
Maddie’s schooling and outfit for two years, and the balance
for pocket-money and a few new frocks, so that she may be
smart when her old daddie comes home.”
Madeline paused, and shook the letter. No, no draft fluttered out.
“I have banked it,” put in Mrs. Harper, precipitately, who had been
scrutinizing every change in the girl’s face. “It is quite safe.”
“And now I must wind up, hoping soon to see Madeline,
and with love to her and compliments to yourself and
daughters, especially the lively Miss Selina.
“Yours faithfully,
“Robert West.”
“Well, Madeline, tell me what you think of that?” demanded Mrs.
Harper, wiping her glasses.
“I—I—am very glad of course,” she returned, her brain and ideas
in a whirl; but now fully comprehending the cause of Mrs. Harper’s
blandishments and welcome.
“We are so sorry, love, that we were so hasty about Mr. Wynne. It
was entirely Selina’s doing, I do assure you. I am most thankful to
see—especially after your father’s letter—that you did not marry him
after all!”
“Not marry him,” echoed the girl, colouring vividly. “What do you
mean?”
“I see you are not married by your hand,” pointing a long finger at
Madeline’s ringless member. “Is not that sufficient proof?” she asked
sharply.
Madeline was suddenly aware that she was at a crisis—a great
moral crisis—in her life, when she must take action at once, an
action that meant much. Her father’s letter, Mrs. Harper’s conclusion,
her own dire want, all prompted the quick decision made on the
instant. She would for the present temporise—at least till she had
met her father, told him her story in her own way, and accomplished
a full pardon. To declare now that she was a wife would be ruin—ruin
to her, death to Laurence, for of course her father would cut her off
with a shilling. She was aware that he had very strong prejudices, a
grotesque adoration for rank and success, and a corresponding
abhorrence of those who were poor, needy, and obscure; also that
he was a man of his word. This she had gleaned out in Australia
when but seven years of age. They had lived in a splendid mansion
in Toorak, the most fashionable suburb of Melbourne, and an elderly
reduced Englishwoman had been her governess. But because she
had permitted her to play with some children whose father was in
difficulties, who was socially ostracised, she had been discharged at
a week’s notice, and Madeline had been despatched to England. Her
father was peculiar—yes. In a second her mind was resolved, and,
with hands that shook as she folded up the crackling foreign
notepaper, she reassumed the character of Miss West!
 CHAPTER IX.
BARGAINING.

“You see, my love,” proceeded Mrs. Harper, in a smooth,

insinuating tone, “it is not every one who would take you back under
the circumstances;” and she paused, and peered at the girl over her
spectacles with a significant air. (The circumstances of five hundred
pounds, thought her listener bitterly.) “Will you give me your word of
honour that you have not been doing anything—unbecoming—
anything that—that—would reflect on your reputation? My dear, you
need not look so red and indignant. I’m only an old woman. I mean
no offence.”
“I have done nothing to be ashamed of, or which I shall ever blush
for or regret,” rejoined Madeline, impressively; “and to that I can give
my word of honour. But, Mrs. Harper, you ask strange questions—
and I am no longer at school.”
“Well, well, my dear—well, well; we did hear that you were in the
mantle department at Marshall and Snelgrove’s. I believe there are
ladies in these establishments;” and then she added craftily, “You
have such a nice, tall, slight figure—for trying on things. You were
always so graceful, and had such taking manners!”
“I was not there, Mrs. Harper,” returned Madeline; “and I cannot
tell you where I was, beyond that I lived with a friend, and that I was
very poor.”
“A friend, at Solferino Place?” quickly.
“Yes”—with visible reluctance—“at Solferino Place. And now what
do you want with me, Mrs. Harper?” she asked, with unexpected
boldness.
“Well, I wish”—clearing her throat—“and so does Letitia, to let
bygones be bygones; to allow your father to find you here, as if you
had never been away; to hush up your escapade—for though, of
course, I believe you—it might sound a little curious to him. No one
knows why you left, excepting Selina—Mrs. Murphy. It happened in
the holidays. These girls are a new set, and have never heard of
you; and, even if they had, they would not meet Mr. West, as he
arrives during the Easter term. Do you agree to this?”
“Yes,” replied Madeline, with sudden pallor, but a steady voice, “I
agree; it will be best.”
“That is arranged, then,” said the old diplomatist, briskly. “And,
now, what about the money?—what about that? Shall we keep the
five hundred pounds, and give you the balance?”
In former days Madeline would have assented to this proposition
at once; but now her heart beat tumultuously as she thought of
Laurence and the baby. She must secure all she could for their
sakes, and, feeling desperately nervous, she replied—
“No, I can’t quite see that, Mrs. Harper. To one year’s payment and
interest you are, of course, entitled; but the second year I worked for
my living—worked very hard indeed. You can scarcely expect to take
two hundred pounds, as well as my services—gratis.”
But Mrs. Harper had expected it confidently, and this unlooked-for
opposition was a blow. Madeline was not as nice as she used to be,
and she must really put some searching questions to her respecting
her absence, if she was going to be so horribly grasping about
money; and Madeline, blushing for very shame as she bargained
with this old female Shylock, reluctantly yielded one hundred pounds
for the year she had been pupil-teacher. It was money versus
character—and a character is expensive.
Mrs. Harper, on her part, undertook to arrange Madeline’s past
very completely, and Madeline felt that it must be veiled from her
father for the present—at any rate, until Laurence was better, and
able to resume work and a foothold on existence.
She had assured him yesterday that she would steal for him if
necessary. Was not this as bad, she asked herself, bargaining and
chaffering thus over her father’s money, and dividing it with the
greedy old creature at her side? However, she was to have one
hundred and eighty pounds for her share. Oh, riches! Oh, what could
she not do with that sum?
She was to return to her friends at Solferino Place for three weeks
—(she had struggled and battled fiercely for this concession, and
carried the day)—was then to return to Harperton, and be
subsequently escorted to Plymouth by Miss Harper, who would
personally restore her to her father’s arms.
After the morning’s exciting business, Madeline was wearied,
flushed, and had a splitting headache. She was not sorry to share
Mrs. Harper’s excellent tea, and to be allowed to take off her dress
and go and lie down in a spare room upstairs—a room once full, but
now empty—and there she had a long think; and, being completely
worn out, a long, long sleep.
After dinner—early dinner—she went out with Miss Harper, and
the money—her share—was paid to her without delay. She had
stipulated for this. Could it be possible that it was she, Madeline
Wynne, who stood opposite to the cashier’s desk cramming notes
and sovereigns into her sixpenny purse? As they pursued their walk,
Madeline recognized a few old faces, and many old places. She
purchased a new hat, which she put on in the shop; and she heard,
to her relief, that the Wolfertons had left, and gone to live abroad.
Some former schoolfellows, now grown up—no young plant grows
quicker than a schoolgirl—recognized and accosted her. These had
been day-boarders. They mentally remarked that she had turned out
very different to what they expected, and that she looked much older
than her age. “She was staying at Mrs. Harper’s, was she?”
Before they had time to ask the hundred and one questions with
which they were charged, Miss Harper prudently hurried her pupil
away, saying, as she did so—
“Least said, soonest mended, my dear. It’s well you had on your
new hat! Now you had better get some gloves.”
She was not quite as keen about the money as her mother, and
was inclined—nay, anxious—to be amiable. Madeline West, the
great Australian heiress, had possibilities in her power. She was
resolved to be friendly with her, and to reinstate her at once as the
favourite pupil of former days, burying in oblivion the teacher
interlude.
The girls Madeline had met walked on disappointed, saying to one
another—
“Fancy that being Maddie West! How awful she looks! So seedy,
and so thin and careworn; and she is barely my age—in fact, she is
a week younger!”
“And so frightfully shabby,” put in another.
“Did you see her dress—all creases?”
“And her gloves!” (The gloves were apparently beyond
description.)
“All the same, Miss Harper was making a great fuss—a great deal
of her. It was ‘dear’ this, and ‘love’ that. She is never affectionate for
nothing. I know the old boa-constrictor so well. Perhaps Maddie has
been left a fortune?” hazarded the sharpest of the party.
“Her dress and jacket looked extremely like it,” sneered number
one. “As to her hat, I saw it in at Mason’s this morning—I noticed it
particularly, marked eleven and ninepence. That looks like being an
heiress! Oh, very much so, indeed!”
The price of the hat settled the question!
 CHAPTER X.
MRS. KANE BECOMES AFFECTIONATE.

Mrs. Harper would not hear of Madeline returning to London by

night. No, it was a most shocking idea, and not to be entertained.
She must remain until the next day at least, “and travel properly,”
which meant that Miss Harper herself conducted the heiress to
Riverside, and saw her off by the morning express, first class. It was
in vain that Madeline protested that such precautions were quite
unnecessary. She was anxious to save her fare, and return third; for,
even with such wealth as one hundred and eighty pounds, every
shilling would be required. But her voice was silenced. Miss Harper
carried the day, took her late pupil to the station, gave her into the
charge of the guard, and even went so far as to present her with a
two-shilling novel, to wile away the journey (an attention that she
hoped would bear fruit by-and-by). But Madeline did not need it; her
own thoughts were sufficient to absorb her whole attention as she
travelled rapidly homeward. She was sensible of some disquieting
pangs when she thought of Laurence. Would he be angry when he
heard that his wife had once more assumed her maiden name, and
pretended that she was still Madeline West?
No, no; he must forgive her, when there was so much at stake.
Her hand closed involuntarily on her purse, that precious purse
which contained the first payment for the fraud, she had been
compelled to practise. About five o’clock that evening Madeline’s
quick foot was once more heard ascending the stairs, and with hasty
fingers she opened the sitting-room door, and rushed into her
husband’s presence. He was up and dressed—(at all but the worst
of times he would insist on dragging himself out of bed and dressing)
—seated at her table, laboriously doing some copying, with slow and
shaky fingers.
 It should here be stated, in justice to Mrs. Harper, that she had
passed Madeline under the harrow of searching inquiries, and
elicited the intelligence that she made her livelihood by law copying,
and she was satisfied that it was a respectable employment.
“Ah!” exclaimed the astute dame, “I suppose Mr. Wynne put that
bit of work in your way, did he?” Fortunately for her new rôle,
Madeline could truthfully reply “No,” for it was not Laurence who had
been the means of procuring this employment, such as it was, but
Mr. Jessop.
“You will give me your permanent address, Madeline,” said Mrs.
Harper, austerely. “That must be thoroughly understood.”
“But you have it already, Mrs. Harper.”
“Have you lodged there long?” she asked, feeling confident that no
well-known counsel at the bar could outdo her in crafty questions.
“Fourteen months,” said her pupil, rather shortly.
“Then you must have been pretty comfortable?”
To which Madeline evasively replied that she had been quite
happy. (No thanks to Mrs. Kane.)
And Mrs. Harper was satisfied. She had found out all she wished
to know. Madeline’s past was as clear as daylight now! Was it?
And now behold Madeline at home once more, flushed with
excitement, exhilarated by the change, by the money in her purse,
and with her bright eyes, bright colour, and new hat, making quite a
cheerful and brilliant appearance before the amazed and languid
invalid.
He was looking very ill to-day. These close stifling rooms and
sleepless nights were gradually sapping his scanty stock of vitality.
“Baby is asleep,” she said, glancing eagerly into the cradle. “And
now I am going to tell you all about it,” taking off her hat and gloves,
and pushing aside her husband’s writing materials, filling him up a
glass of port, fetching a biscuit, and taking a seat opposite to him, all
within the space of three minutes.
 “You have good news, Maddie, I see,” he remarked as he looked
at her, and noticed her condition of suppressed excitement, and her
sparkling eyes.
“Good?—news, yes; and money!” pulling out her purse and
displaying thick rolls of Bank of England notes, and some shining
sovereigns. “Oh, Laurence dear, I feel so happy, all but in one little
corner of my conscience, and I’m afraid you’ll be angry with me—
about something—that is the one drawback! I don’t know how to
begin to tell you—best begin with the worst. I’ve gone back to being
Madeline West once more; they don’t know that I am married.”
“Madeline!” he ejaculated sternly. “You are not in earnest.”
“Now, dear, don’t; don’t speak till you hear all. You know how I left,
how I travelled with the price of my rings. I arrived, was shown up
into Mrs. Harper’s own room—where, in old times, girls were sent for
to have bad news broken to them. She has had a stroke. Miss Selina
is married, and Mr. Murphy is gone. The school is going down. So
when Mrs. Harper had a letter from my father, enclosing five hundred
pounds for two years’ expenses, and one hundred for me for pocket-
money, it was a most welcome surprise, and they were anxious to
find me, of course”—pausing for a second to take breath. “Don’t
interrupt me, yet,” she pleaded, with outstretched hands. “Mrs.
Harper gave me papa’s letter to read. He had lost money, he had
been ill for a long time, he had no wish to write until he was again a
rich man. Now he is a millionaire, and is coming home immediately,
expecting to find me still at the Harpers’, and still Miss West. I am to
be a great heiress. I am to keep his house; and, Laurence dear, he
had heard a hint of you. I know it was that detestable gossip, Maggie
Wilkinson. She had a cousin in an office in Melbourne, and used to
write him volumes. And, oh, he says dreadful things—I mean my
father—if I marry a poor man, as he has such—such—views. That
was the word; and if I disappoint him, I am to be turned from his door
penniless, to earn my own bread!”
“As you are doing now,” observed her listener bitterly.
“Yes!” with a gesture of despair; “but what is it—for you and me
and baby—what are nine shillings a week? Then Mrs. Harper
exclaimed, with great relief, ‘I see you are not married!’ pointing to
my hand; and it all came into my mind like a flash. I did not say I was
not married, I uttered no actual untruth; but I allowed her to think so.
The temptation was too great; there was the wealth for the taking—
money that would bring you health. I said I would steal for you,
Laurence; but it was not stealing, it was, in a sense, my own money,
intended for my use. Are you very angry with me for what I have
done, dear?” she wound up rather timidly.
“No, Madeline. I see you could not help yourself, poor child, with
starvation staring you in the face, and a sick husband and infant to
support! Your father has views for you, has he? I wonder how this
view”—indicating himself and the cradle—“would strike him. As far
as I am concerned, it won’t be for long, and your father will forgive
you; but the child Maddie—on his account your marriage——”
“Laurence!” she almost screamed, “don’t! Do you think the child
would make up for you? Am I not doing all this for you—acting a
part, clothing myself in deceit, for you—only for you? Do not tell me
that it is all to go for nothing! If I thought that, I would give it up at
once. My sole object is to gain time, and money, until you are
yourself once more, and able to earn our living at your profession.
Then, having done all to smooth the way, I shall confess my
marriage to my father. If he renounces me, I shall still have you, and
you will have me. But, without this money to go on with, to get the
best advice, plenty of nourishment, and change of air, I don’t know
what I should do?” And she surveyed him with a pair of truly tragic
eyes. “It has come to me like a reprieve to a condemned criminal.
Say, Laurence, that I have done right. Oh, please, say it!” putting out
her hands, with a pretty begging gesture.
“No, dearest Maddie, I cannot say that; but I will say that, under
the circumstances, it was a great, an almost irresistible temptation.”
“Then, at least, say you are not angry with me.”
“I can say no to that from the bottom of my heart. How can I be
angry, when I myself am the cause—when it has all been done for
me? The only thing is, that there maybe difficulties later on,” looking
into the future with his practical lawyer’s eye. “There may be
difficulties and a desperate entanglement in store for you, my pretty,
reckless Maddie. You know the lines—

“‘Oh, what a tangled web we weave,

When once we practise to deceive.’”

“At any rate, I shall make the best of my web,” said his wife,
springing up. “I am going to take Mr. Jessop into my confidence.”
“Are you? Well, I suppose it will be best.”
“Yes, of course it will; I am going to write to him now. The very first
doctor in London is to come and see you; and, as soon as you can
be moved, you go into the country—that I insist upon.”
“I go into the country, do I?” with a grim smile. He was saying to
himself, as he looked at her eager anxious face, that the only country
he would ever go into now would be down to the old burying-place of
the Wynne family. At least his relations could not refuse him
admission there, or close that door—the door of the family vault—in
his face.
And when he was at rest, under the walls of the old grey church,
Madeline, as a widow, would be as much her father’s heiress and
housekeeper as if she had never been a wife. In fact, her days of
misfortune would enhance her domestic worth, at least she had
learnt the value of money! As for himself, he was reduced to such a
low ebb, mentally and physically, that death would be a release. To
return to life—with a capital L—and to take up his heavy load, and
plod on and on like an omnibus horse, was not an alluring prospect.
Madeline’s future was safe, and he would rather be under the green
sod, with all the dead and gone Wynnes—when, after life’s fitful
fever, they slept well.
It will be seen from this that Mr. Wynne was in a bad way—too
weak, too hopeless, even to care to struggle back to health. But
Madeline had now sufficient energy for two. Hope pervaded her
young veins, decision and prompt action were its outcome, and
money was power.
In the first place, she scribbled a hasty note to Mr. Jessop, and
begged him to call on them that evening without fail. This she
despatched by a little boy, paying a precious sixpence to save time.
Then she descended like a whirlwind upon Mrs. Kane, and begged
to see her for a moment alone. She had made a bold resolve—there
was no alternative. She was about to take Mrs. Kane—the insolent,
the red-faced, the incredulous—into her confidence. She had
Hobson’s choice, and, in fact, was at her wits’ end. Supposing
inquiries were made, supposing Mrs. Harper wrote and asked
awkward questions, and who so ready to answer them—unless
previously prepared, previously bribed, previously flattered, by being
let into the secret—as Mrs. Kane?
“Mrs. Kane,” said Madeline, knocking at that lady’s door, the door
of her own sanctum, “I have something to say to you in private.”
“Bless me, Mrs. Wynne, how white your face is!” exclaimed the
other tartly, having been just about to sit down to her supper—tripe
and bottled stout. “Whatever is the matter now? Not the bailiffs—that
I do hope.”
“No, no, no; quite the contrary.” Then, struck by a happy thought,
“How much do we owe you, Mrs. Kane?”
“Ah, owe me!” rather staggered. “Let’s see, thirteen weeks, at ten
shillings, is six pounds ten; then the coal——Here,” making a raid on
a rickety writing-table, “I have it all down,” searching among some
papers. “Yes, here it is. Coal, one pound one, kindling wood,
matches, postage on a parcel—total, eight pounds, thirteen and
sevenpence-halfpenny. Are you going to settle it?” she asked briskly.
“Yes, I am,” replied Madeline, now drawing out her full, her
overflowing purse. What courage, what confidence were conferred
by the very feel of its contents! Mrs. Kane gazed at it with eyes as
distended as those of a bull frog, and with her mouth half-open. “A
ten-pound note, Mrs. Kane.” And Mrs. Wynne tendered one as she
spoke.
 “So I see,” in a milder key. “I’ll get you change, and, though I says
it as shouldn’t, it’s not everybody, you know yourself, who would
have——”
“Yes, quite true, I know all that already, thank you, Mrs. Kane.
Never mind the change just now, it can go towards the milk bill. What
I wanted to speak to you about is to tell you a family secret—which
concerns me.”
“A family secret! Laws, Mrs. Wynne!” suddenly seating herself with
a plunge, and looking at her lodger with a countenance of gratified
anticipation, “whatever can it be?”
“Promise, on your solemn word of honour, not to tell any one.”
“Oh, I’m as safe as a church; no one will get anything out of me”—
mentally resolving to tell her niece and husband without any churlish
delay—“unless it’s something not on the square.”
“It is quite on the square; you need not fear. Once I was a Miss
West.”
“So you told me,” nodding her head.
“I was at school near Riverside for a good many years. My father
is an Australian merchant—very rich.”
“Oh, indeed!” in a comfortable tone.
“But for two years he had not been heard of, we thought that he
was dead, and I became a teacher at school. Mr. Wynne saw me
there, and paid me attention, which displeased Mrs. Harper very
much. I was sent away, and we were married. We have been here
ever since.”
“So you have,” agreed Mrs. Kane, as much as to say, “And it’s
highly to your credit!”
“Well, now my father has written at last; he is coming home,
immensely rich. He has not heard of my marriage.”
“Laws, you don’t say so!” in a tone of admiration and
astonishment.
 “No one has heard of it, you see. I had no friends. And if my father
knew that I had married a poor man, he would be dreadfully angry—
at least at first. I went down to Mrs. Harper’s; she showed me his
letter. She thinks I am not married, for,” holding up her bare left hand,
“I pawned my rings to pay my railway fare.”
“Oh, my goodness! Did you really, now?”
“And she took it for granted that I was still Miss West. I confessed
nothing. I told her I had lived here for fourteen months, that I worked
at law stationery, and was very poor, and she was apparently
satisfied; but, all the same, I firmly believe she will write and ask you
all about me. Neither she nor my father must know of my marriage—
yet. And now, are you quite prepared? I am Miss West, you know,
who has lived with you since last January year. You understand, Mrs.
Kane?”
“Oh yes!” with an expressive wink. “A nice, quiet, respectable
young lady—never going nowhere, keeping no company, and I only
wishes I had a dozen like her. I’ll give it her all pat, you be quite
certain,” said her landlady, rubbing her bare fat arms with the liveliest
delight at her own rôle in the piece. “But how about Mr. Wynne and
the baby?” she asked slyly.
“You need not mention them. It will be all right later on, when I see
my father and prepare him, you know. But now I am obliged to keep
him in the dark. Mrs. Harper would not have given me my money,
had she known. It’s only for a short time that I am forced to resume
my old name, and I assure you, Mrs. Kane, that it’s not very
pleasant.”
“Ay, well now, I think it’s rather a joke—something like a play at the
Adelphi, where in the end the father comes in and blesses the young
couple, and they all live together, happy as sand-boys, ever after.
That will be your case, you’ll see!” emphatically.
“I hope so, but I doubt it,” returned her lodger. “I will be content if
my husband recovers his health. Money is nothing in comparison to
health.”
 “Ay, may be so; but money is a great comfort all the same,” said
Mrs. Kane, squeezing the note affectionately in her hand, and
wondering how many more of the same quality were in Mrs. Wynne’s
purse—“a great comfort!”
“Well then, now you know all, Mrs. Kane,” said the other, rising, “I
can depend on you? You will be our friend in this matter, and, believe
me, you will be no loser.”
“Certainly you can’t say fairer nor that, can you, ma’am?—though,
as far as I’m concerned, I’m always delighted to oblige a lady for
nothing, and I always fancied you from the first time I saw you in the
hall, and you knocked over that pot of musk, and so Maria will tell
you. As for the secret, wild horses would not tear it from me; and I’m
that interested in you, as I couldn’t express to you, and allus was—
you ask Maria—just as if you was my own daughter. I can’t say fairer
nor that, can I?”
And opening the door with a wide flourish, she waved Madeline
through, who, rather staggered by this unexpected compliment,
passed quickly into the lobby, and with a farewell nod, hurried back
to her family in the upper regions, and set about preparing tea. She
also made preparations for the expected visit of their chief
counsellor, Mr. Henry Jessop.