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AQA A Level Geography - PHYSICAL > ✅C&W 3.1.1.3 - The Carbon Cycle > Flashcards

✅C&W 3.1.1.3 - The Carbon Cycle Flashcards

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1
Q

What is a Carbon store?

A

The lithosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, atmosphere etc

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2
Q

What is a carbon sink?

A

A store that takes in more carbon than it releases

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3
Q

What is a carbon source?

A

A store that releases more carbon than it takes in

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4
Q

What is a carbon transfer?

A

Processes that transfer carbon between stores

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5
Q

What is a GtC?

A

A gigatonne of Carbon, 1 gigatonne = 1 billion tonnes

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6
Q

What is anthropogenic CO2?

A

Carbon Dioxide generated by human activity

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7
Q

What is a greenhouse gas?

A

Any gaseous compound in the atmosphere that is capable of absorbing infrared radiation, therefore trapping and holding heat in the atmosphere

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8
Q

What is the lithosphere?

A

The crust and uppermost mantle, the hard rigid outer layer of the earth
Includes organic and inorganic carbon

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9
Q

organic carbon in the lithosphere

A

in soil- 1500 GtC
humus, litter
Medium residence time, 100 years in soil
Farming can disrupt stores, release Carbon

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10
Q

inorganic carbon lithosphere

A

Fossil fuel deposits, 4,100 GtC
Marine sediments and sedimentary rock- very long term, up to 100 million GtC- biggest store

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11
Q

Carbon in hydrosphere

A

up to 40,000 GtC in ocean
Living organic matter only 30GtC- significant but not major carbon release if killed due to warming
Sedimentary layer in ocean: organisms die, sink to bottom, decay, material forms rock over millions of years

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12
Q

What is weathering?

A

The breakdown of rocks in situ by weather, plants and animals

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13
Q

What is the biosphere?

A

The total sum of all living matter

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14
Q

What is Carbon Sequestration?

A

The capture of CO2 from the atmosphere, or capturing anthropogenic CO2 from large scale stationary sources such as power stations - put into long term storage

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15
Q

Why is recycling carbon essential for life?

A

It enables food to be provided for plants and animals and creation of energy sources

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16
Q

What can carbon form?

A

Biological molecules, Gases (eg CO2, CH4), Hydrocarbons

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17
Q

What is the primary source of Carbon?

A

The Earth’s interior

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18
Q

What are some of the stores in the carbon cycle?

A

Sedimentary rock, coal, oil, gas, plants, atmosphere, phytoplankton etc

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19
Q

What are some of the transfers in the carbon cycle?

A

Weathering and erosion, rock cycle, photosynthesis, respiration, burning, decomposition, diffusion

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20
Q

What is the largest store of carbon?

A

Marine sediments and sedimentary rock

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21
Q

How is the ocean a store of carbon?

A

CO2 is absorbed directly from the air and river water discharges carbon in solutions

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22
Q

How is soil organic matter a store of carbon?

A

They contain rotting organic matter and are important carbon stores. Carbon can remain in the soils for hundreds of years

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23
Q

How is carbon in the biosphere divided up?
How much GtC overall?

A

Into terrestrial and oceanic
3,100 GtC overall

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24
Q

What are the main sources of carbon in the biosphere?

A 
Living vegetation- 19% of biosphere's carbon
Plant litter
Soil humus- in forests 69% of all C is in soil- 2500GtC
Peat- saturation, no oxygen, decay is slowed due to anaerobic respiration, longer residence time- 250GtC
Animals
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25
Q

Where is most of the carbon in the cryosphere?

A

In the soil areas of permafrost where decomposing plants and animals have frozen into the ground

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26
Q

What are methyl clathrates?

A

Molecules of methane frozen into ice crystals

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27
Q

What does most frozen organic matter in permafrost consist of?

A

Partially decayed roots, whole roots and other plant material

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28
Q

When is cryospheric carbon released into the atmosphere?

A

When the permafrost melts

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29
Q

What are oceanic carbon stores divided into?

A

Surface later (euphotic zone)
Intermediate and deep layer
Living organic matter

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30
Q

What is the euphotic zone?

A

The surface of the ocean where sunlight can penetrate and photosynthesis can take place

31
Q

Why are sediments and rocks in the ocean so carbon rich?

A

Because when organisms die, they sink to the bottom of the ocean and decay, releasing carbon

32
Q

What are fluxes?

A

Measurements of rate of flow of material between stores

33
Q

What are processes?

A

Physical mechanisms which drive movement and fuxes

34
Q

What type of system is the carbon cycle?

A

Closed

35
Q

What is burial and compaction?

A

Organic matter is buried by sediments and becomes compacted

36
Q

What is the geological component?

A

Where the carbon cycle interacts with the rock cycle in the processes of weathering, burial, subduction and volcanic eruptions

37
Q

What is a sere?

A

A succession which relates to a specific environment

38
Q

What is a lithosere?

A

Vegetation succession which occurs on bare rock

39
Q

When was the quaternary period?

A

2.6 million years ago to today

40
Q

Cold rainwater can hold…

A

…more CO2

41
Q

If rainwater hold more CO2, how is the rock affected?

A

It is weathered more

42
Q

What is eccentricity?

A

The change in the shape of the Earth’s orbit around the sun

43
Q

How does the eccentricity of the Earth’s orbit change?

A

In 100,000 year cycles. it changes from a thin ellipse to a circle and back again

44
Q

What is insolation?

A

The amount of solar radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface

45
Q

What does lower insolation mean for global temperatures?

A

They decrease

46
Q

What natural factors can increase input of atmospheric CO2?

A

Periods of increased volcanicity
warmer ocean, releases more carbon
warmer atmosphere, can hold more carbon

47
Q

Volcanic activities impact on carbon cycle

A

Eruptions release carbon
Up to 0.36 GtC of CO2/ year - but this is up to 100x less than human caused emissions
No. of erutions not increasing, about 70/ year
ALthoug ash can cover sunlight, reducing photosynthesis- e.g, in Mt Tambora eruption 1815

48
Q

What human factors can increase input of atmospheric CO2?

A

Burning fossil fuels
Causing more wildfires- less vegetation, less photosynthesis
Climate change causing melting of tundra

49
Q

Carbon in the atmosphere

A

750 GtC
Likely highest ever been in last 20 years
Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii records: 280ppm of carbon in 1958, 317ppm in 2020
45% of emitted carbon has remained in the atmosphere

50
Q

What natural factors can reduce removal of CO2 from the atmosphere

A

Glacial periods (less vegetation)
Interglacial periods (warmer oceans, less CO2 absorebd)
Winter in the northern hemisphere, hibernation

51
Q

What human factors can reduce the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere

A

Clearing vegetation from from areas

Climate change resulting in warmer oceans

52
Q

What percentage of anthropogenic CO2 is from fossil fuel burning?

A

90%

53
Q

Burning fossils fuels impact on carbon cycle

A

81% of global energy is from fossil fuels
44% of emissions from coal
Increases greenhouse effect

54
Q

How does ploughing increase CO2 emissions?

A

It aerates soil, increasing microbial activity and therefore decomposition, more CO2 released

55
Q

What are the human factors which can cause changes in the carbon cycle?

A 
Combustion of fossil fuels
Land use
Farming practices
Carbon sequestration in soils
Deforestation
Urbanisation
56
Q

How does deforestation affect the carbon cycle?

A

Above ground biomass is burned, releasing CO2- slash n’ burn
Forest clearing may accelerate decay of dead wood, litter or below ground organic carbon
In a natural system, trees would decay very slowly
Upsets the balance of carbon in the forest
But selective logging, only cutting logs above a certain height, is more sustainable
Lots of slash n’ burn in Indonesia, for palm oil industry

57
Q

How farming practices affect the carbon cycle?

A

Arable farming is only 14% of farming emissions
Livestock is much more, lots of respiration

land use: 1/2 of all habitable land is used for agriculture, 70-90% of deforested land is for agriculture

58
Q

How does urbanisation affect the carbon cycle?

A

Replacing open countryside with concrete and tarmac replaces important stores
Urban areas produce far more CO2 than rural ones- is only 2% of world’s surface but accounts for 97% of anthropogenic emissions

59
Q

What does terrestrial/biological sequestration involve?

A

The use of plants to capture CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in stems and roots

60
Q

What is the carbon budget?

A

Uses data to describe the amount of carbon that is stored and transferred within the carbon cycle

61
Q

What is the enhanced greenhouse effect?

A

The impact on the climate from the additional heat retained due to increased CO2

62
Q

What is geo-sequestration?

A

Technology capturing greenhouse gas emissions from power stations and pumping them into underground reservoirs

63
Q

What is radiative forcing?

A

The difference between the incoming solar energy absorbed by the earth and energy radiated back to space

64
Q

What is soil organic carbon (SOC)?

A

The organic constituents of the soil, tissues from dead plants/animals, products of decomposition, microbial biomass etc.

65
Q

How is the carbon budget affecting ocean salinity?

A

Decrease in salinity in the deep North Atlantic, more freshwater being added to the ocean. Slowing down of large scale oceanic circulation

66
Q

Carbon impact on the ocean?

A

Acidification, can cause coral bleaching

67
Q

Global Carbon emissions since 1750: Coal

A

670 GtC

68
Q

Global Carbon emissions since 1750: Oil

A

500 GtC

69
Q

Global Carbon emissions since 1750: Gas

A

202 GtC

70
Q

Global Carbon emissions since 1750: Cement

A

36 GtC (so urbanisation increases emissions)

71
Q

Global Carbon emissions since 1750: Land Use

A

590 GtC

72
Q

Global Carbon sinks since 1750: Atmosphere

A

880 GtC

73
Q

Global Carbon sinks since 1750: Ocean

A

590 GtC

74
Q

Global Carbon sinks since 1750: Land Use

A

528 GtC

AQA A Level Geography - PHYSICAL (35 decks)

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