<P> Humans also influence the carbon cycle indirectly by changing the terrestrial and oceanic biosphere . Over the past several centuries, direct and indirect human - caused land use and land cover change (LUCC) has led to the loss of biodiversity, which lowers ecosystems' resilience to environmental stresses and decreases their ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere . More directly, it often leads to the release of carbon from terrestrial ecosystems into the atmosphere . Deforestation for agricultural purposes removes forests, which hold large amounts of carbon, and replaces them, generally with agricultural or urban areas . Both of these replacement land cover types store comparatively small amounts of carbon, so that the net product of the process is that more carbon stays in the atmosphere . </P> <P> Other human - caused changes to the environment change ecosystems' productivity and their ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere . Air pollution, for example, damages plants and soils, while many agricultural and land use practices lead to higher erosion rates, washing carbon out of soils and decreasing plant productivity . </P> <P> Humans also affect the oceanic carbon cycle . Current trends in climate change lead to higher ocean temperatures, thus modifying ecosystems . Also, acid rain and polluted runoff from agriculture and industry change the ocean's chemical composition . Such changes can have dramatic effects on highly sensitive ecosystems such as coral reefs, thus limiting the ocean's ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere on a regional scale and reducing oceanic biodiversity globally . </P> <P> Arctic methane emissions indirectly caused by anthropogenic global warming also affect the carbon cycle, and contribute to further warming in what is known as climate change feedback . </P>

Which process of the carbon cycle is responsible