C9 : Changing Carbon Dioxide Levels

Question 1

Carbon lock up

Answer 1

Processes that removed carbon dioxide permanently

Question 2

How did plants and animals help lock carbon away

Answer 2

Algae and plants used CO2 for photosynthesis helping them grow, when animals ate these plants, some of the CO2 became parts of their bone, when the animals died, their skeletons came to form
. Rocks like calcium carbonate locking up carbon in rock
. Underground deposits of fossil fuels, locking up carbon underground

Question 3

How did oceans help to lock up Carbon

Answer 3

When the oceans formed, CO2 from the atmosphere dissolved in the oceans. It reacted with metal oxides in the water and formed insoluble carbonate compounds eventually becoming rock again locking up the carbon

Question 4

What gases started to form when oxygen formed

Answer 4

Once oxygen was formed, oxygen would react with the tiny amounts of ammonia released form volcanoes and created nitrogen as well as water. Nitrogen levels would build up over time as it was highly unreactive