{ "model": { "rank": 4766, "code": "thing-q167751", "model_id": "vr.tr.carbon-cycle", "name": "carbon cycle", "purpose": "Let an agent explain the carbon cycle, its reservoirs, fluxes and timescales, relay measured budgets from scientific assessments with attribution, describe the human perturbation and its role in climate change, and distinguish fast from slow cycles.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Activities and processes", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "ACT", "domain": "ACT.PRC", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q167751/", "tier": 2, "score": 72, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Oceanic carbon cycle", "Deep carbon cycle" ], "aliasCount": 2, "merged": 2, "knownIn": 72, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.carbon-cycle", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q167751", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q167751", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T22:45:36Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 3, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q167751", "registryId": "vr.tr.carbon-cycle", "name": "carbon cycle", "version": "0.2.0-wave.3", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "ACT.PRC" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q167751/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.carbon-cycle", "name": "carbon cycle", "purpose": "Let an agent explain the carbon cycle, its reservoirs, fluxes and timescales, relay measured budgets from scientific assessments with attribution, describe the human perturbation and its role in climate change, and distinguish fast from slow cycles.", "definition": "The biogeochemical cycle by which carbon moves among the atmosphere, oceans, land, living organisms and rocks through photosynthesis, respiration, decomposition, ocean exchange, weathering, volcanism and burial, over timescales from days to millions of years; the cycle regulates atmospheric carbon dioxide and climate, includes the oceanic and the deep carbon cycles, and is perturbed by fossil fuel burning and land use change, which are the basis of human-caused climate change.", "what_it_is_for": "Not applicable; an Earth system process.", "affordances": [ "explain reservoirs, fluxes and timescales", "relay carbon budgets with sources", "describe the human perturbation", "distinguish fast and slow cycles" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Multiple reservoirs", "Fast and slow components", "Climate regulation", "Human perturbation" ], "appearance": "Not a visible object; diagrams of reservoirs and arrows of flux.", "visual_identification": [ "Movement of carbon among Earth reservoirs", "Fast biological and slow geological cycles", "The nitrogen and water cycles are other biogeochemical cycles" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "atmospheric carbon", "typical_range": "about 870", "unit": "GtC", "note": "recent years" }, { "quantity": "fossil fuel emissions", "typical_range": "about 10", "unit": "GtC per year", "note": "recent years, per Global Carbon Project" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "fast carbon cycle through biosphere and atmosphere", "oceanic carbon cycle including the solubility and biological pumps", "deep or geological carbon cycle through weathering, subduction and volcanism", "soil carbon cycling", "the anthropogenic perturbation" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "biogeochemical cycle", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "regulates", "target": "atmospheric carbon dioxide", "why": "and climate" }, { "relation": "is perturbed by", "target": "fossil fuel combustion", "why": "and land use change" }, { "relation": "is assessed by", "target": "Global Carbon Project", "why": "annual budgets" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "IPCC assessment methods", "Greenhouse gas inventory guidelines", "Carbon accounting standards" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Climate change from perturbation", "Feedbacks such as permafrost thaw", "Misrepresenting natural versus human fluxes" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "How the cycle works.", "rationale": "Science.", "layers": [ { "id": "reservoirs", "name": "Reservoirs", "description": "Reservoirs and fluxes.", "findings": [ { "id": "reservoirs-finding", "name": "Reservoirs", "description": "Reservoirs.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the carbon reservoirs and the fluxes between them?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about the carbon cycle or another biogeochemical cycle?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "timescales", "name": "Timescales", "description": "Fast and slow cycles.", "findings": [ { "id": "timescales-finding", "name": "Timescales", "description": "Timescales.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do the fast and slow carbon cycles differ in timescale and mechanism?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific subcycle?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "budget", "name": "Budget", "description": "Measurement and budgets.", "rationale": "Sources.", "layers": [ { "id": "budget", "name": "Budget", "description": "The carbon budget.", "findings": [ { "id": "budget-finding", "name": "Budget", "description": "Budget.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do annual carbon budgets report about sources and sinks, with sources?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "methods", "name": "Methods", "description": "Measurement methods.", "findings": [ { "id": "methods-finding", "name": "Methods", "description": "Methods.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are carbon fluxes measured, from flux towers to satellites and ocean surveys?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "human", "name": "Human", "description": "Human perturbation.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "perturbation", "name": "Perturbation", "description": "The perturbation.", "findings": [ { "id": "perturbation-finding", "name": "Perturbation", "description": "Perturbation.", "questions": [ { "text": "How have fossil fuels and land use altered the cycle, and what do assessments conclude, with attribution?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation attributed to assessments?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "feedbacks", "name": "Feedbacks", "description": "Feedbacks.", "findings": [ { "id": "feedbacks-finding", "name": "Feedbacks", "description": "Feedbacks.", "questions": [ { "text": "What carbon cycle feedbacks are expected under warming, with findings attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits climate feedback?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "respond", "name": "Respond", "description": "Responses and history.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "responses", "name": "Responses", "description": "Sinks and removal.", "findings": [ { "id": "responses-finding", "name": "Responses", "description": "Responses.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do natural sinks, land management and carbon removal technologies affect the cycle?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits carbon dioxide removal?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History of understanding.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How was the carbon cycle understood, from early chemistry to the Keeling curve and modern budgets?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the history of climate science?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should the oceanic and deep cycles be separate entries?", "How should assessment reports be linked?", "How should annual budget updates be recorded?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a carbon cycle, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain the carbon cycle, its reservoirs, fluxes and timescales, relay measured budgets from scientific assessments with attribution, describe the human perturbation and its role in climate change, and distinguish fast from slow cycles.", "characteristics": { "substance": "activity", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Oceanic carbon cycle, Deep carbon cycle.", "2 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 72 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a carbon cycle, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "something that happens over time", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "Oceanic carbon cycle", "Deep carbon cycle" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 72 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 2 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one carbon cycle from another, and a carbon cycle from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a carbon cycle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a carbon cycle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a carbon cycle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a carbon cycle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a carbon cycle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a carbon cycle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a carbon cycle sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a carbon cycle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a carbon cycle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a carbon cycle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a carbon cycle from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a carbon cycle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a carbon cycle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a carbon cycle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a carbon cycle passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a carbon cycle between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a carbon cycle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a carbon cycle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a carbon cycle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a carbon cycle, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a carbon cycle is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a carbon cycle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a carbon cycle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a carbon cycle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "process-and-outcome", "name": "Process, inputs and outcome", "description": "How a carbon cycle proceeds, what it needs and what it leaves behind.", "rationale": "An activity is known by its steps and its results, and both have to be recordable while it is still running.", "layers": [ { "id": "steps-and-sequence", "name": "Steps and sequence", "description": "The steps of a carbon cycle, their order and what may run in parallel.", "findings": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions", "name": "Steps, preconditions and completion", "description": "What has to be true before each step of a carbon cycle and what marks it done.", "questions": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a step of a carbon cycle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a step of a carbon cycle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a step of a carbon cycle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-results", "name": "Inputs, resources and results", "description": "What a carbon cycle consumes and what it produces.", "findings": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs", "name": "Inputs, outputs and side effects", "description": "The resources a carbon cycle takes and the results it leaves, wanted or not.", "questions": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the inputs and results of a carbon cycle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the inputs and results of a carbon cycle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the inputs and results of a carbon cycle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What carbon cycle is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of carbon cycle are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is carbon cycle operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of carbon cycle and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of carbon cycle?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as carbon cycle?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a carbon cycle came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a carbon cycle and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a carbon cycle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a carbon cycle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a carbon cycle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a carbon cycle is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a carbon cycle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a carbon cycle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a carbon cycle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }