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A level Geography - Physical > Carbon Cycle 2 > Flashcards

Carbon Cycle 2 Flashcards

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1
Q

Give the 6 zones where carbon is stored, their forms and percentages

A

Atmosphere - CO2, Methane, Acid rain (0.0015%)

Biosphere - Carbohydrates in plants/animals (0.0015%)

Cryosphere - Permafrost (0.0015%)

Pedosphere - Organisms, weathered rock (0.0031%)

Hydrosphere - Dissolved gasses/living matter (0.0075%)

Lithosphere - Chalk, limestone, calcium carbonate (99.9%)

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2
Q

How does an increase in CO2 affect the oceans

A

Higher levels of weak carbonic acid (30%( since industrial revolution

Shell forming organisms are finding it increasingly hard to create their protective casings

Increasing acidification creates stress for coral reefs - fereducing their ability to survive

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3
Q

Are humans stopping increasing carbon emissions

A

No

Emerging superpowers (china + India) have fast growing middle classes which demand western lifestyles and access to their own veichals

Stationary traffic burns fuel inefficiency

Worldwide sales of cars with combustion engines are increasing as are traditional coal fired power stations

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4
Q

Give two ways humans can revert to a carbon cycle in equilibrium

A

International agreements (Paris 2015, COP21)

However, the Kyoto protocol in Japan 1997 failed to reach its target by 2010 to reduce carbon emissions by 6%

Humans can reduce own carbon footprint - change of attitude to our present fossil fuel-driven world

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5
Q

USA is responsible for…% carbon emissions but has only…% of the world’s population

A

25%

15%

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6
Q

Without carbon, we would currently be at -…C

A

-18C

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7
Q

How do forest fires affect the store of carbon in forests

A

The balance between simultaneous production n d composition determines wether the forest is a net source or sink

The fire only consumes 10-20% of the carbon and immediately emits it into atmosphere.

New trees grow (storing carbon), old trees decompose (emitting carbon) and the organic layer of the soil accumulates (storing carbon)

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8
Q

How much carbon is released by fires each year

A

Over a billion tonnes

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9
Q

Why are old growth Northern latitude forests good carbon sinks

A

Older trees are responsible for decades of centuries of carbon + their heavy canopy blocks sunlight reaching forest floor - slowing down decomposition

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10
Q

What is burial and compaction

A

Organic matter is buried by sediments and becomes compacted

Over millions of years these organic sediments may form hydrocarbons such as coal and oil

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11
Q

What is carbon sequestration

A

The removal of carbon from active cycles by natural and artificial transfer and burial in a long term store

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12
Q

Give two primary types of carbon sequestration

A

Geological sequestration

Biologic sequestration

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13
Q

Explain geological sequestration

A

CO2 is captured at its source (power stations) and then injected in liquid form to underground stores (depleted oil and gas reservoirs/thin coal seams)

Still at experimental stage

Oceans = best place. Sheer size + the carbon sequestration, once in the deep ocean, likely to be there for thousands of years

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14
Q

Define the carbon budget

A

The surplus or deficit of carbon once carbon output is subtracted from input

A way of using data to describe the amount of carbon that is stored and transferred within the carbon cycle

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15
Q

Much of the earth’s carbon is not…………… ………for carbon cycling

Rather, it is locked up in rocks such as limestones and only involved in carbon cycle over very………..timescales

A

Readily available

Long

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16
Q

How does CO2 cause global warming

A

Outgoing long wave radiation from the Earth is trapped by greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere - causing the atmosphere to warm up

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17
Q

Is peat a carbon source or sink in the UK

A

The fact that peat is being accumulated shows that carbon is being stored.
However, how long the carbon starts locked up in the peat depends on how stable the environment is

Environmental change can cause the peat system to degrade much quicker than might otherwise be the case - causing it to become a source of carbon

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18
Q

Give a short term human consequence of rising dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in upland rivers (eroded peat)

A

Many upland catchments are sued for water supply (50% UK’s water supply)

DOC contaminates the water and supply companies have had to spend millions in upgrading their treatment plans (Northumbrian Water)

Annual running costs needed to remove the DOC = hundreds of thousands of pounds per year

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19
Q

Give 3 reasons why DOC losses are increasing from peat

A

Higher winter runoff removes more DOC and winters gave been getting wetter recently

Increasing frequency of droughts causes peat to degrade more quickly (summers getting drier recently)

Rising temperatures encourage the breakdown of peat - both chemical and biological processes operate more rapidly at higher temperatures

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20
Q

Can anything be done to make peat a carbon sink once again

A

Nothing we can do in the short term to combat global warming. However, it may be possible to manage upland catchments more carefully to preserve peat

Reducing number of grazing animals = surface vegetation has a chance to grow back, protecting peat from surface erosion

Continued efforts to reduce CO@ willl allow sphagnum mosses to regrow, kickstarting the process of peak accumulation

21
Q

How does carbon enter the oceans

A

River discharge and precipitation

22
Q

Define the greenhouse effect

A

The natural mechanism by which some of the heat escaping from the earth’s surface as long-wave radiation is absorbed and reflected back to earth by certain gasses in the atmosphere

23
Q

Define the enhanced greenhouse effect

A

The impact of people increasing the greenhouse effect by human activities, notably the use of fossil fuels and deforestation

24
Q

Carbon dioxide as a proportion of the atmosphere is at…ppm

Higher than any stage in the last………..years

A

400

800,000 years

25
Q

Give 3 consequences for rising greenhouse gasses

A

Climate change

Warming oceans

Ocean acidification

26
Q

Explain climate change as a consequence of rising greenhouse gasses

A

Rising global temperatures affect components such as wind patterns, pressure systems and rainfall regimes

Tropical storms likely to be more intense as ocean temperatures tis e

Higher temperatures and CO2 may stimulate faster growth pf biomass, moderating the effect of CO2. But not enough

27
Q

Explain warming oceans as a consequence of rising greenhouse gasses

A

Ocean temperatures are rising as they absorb heat from the atmosphere - reduces their ability to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere.

A change in ocean currents and reduced upwelling of colder water may reduce surface plankton - accelerate effect of absorbing less CO2 in photosynthesis

28
Q

Explain ocean acidification as a consequence of rising greenhouse gasses

A

CO2 reacts with water to form carbonic acid.
These molecules can break down and inhibit marine calcification processes.

As a result, plankton is weaker, coral is bleached and the shells of molluscs is thinner - considered a s a great as threat to biological systems as the rise in atmospheric temperature

29
Q

What percentage of the CO2 generated by humans is absorbed into the hydrosphere

A

30-40%

30
Q

Define processes ina. system

A

Mechanisms that generate change

31
Q

Rank the 4 carbon stores in order of their current rate of change

A
  1. Atmosphere
  2. Biosphere
  3. Cryosphere
  4. Hydrosphere
32
Q

How is CO2 in the atmosphere changing

A

Rose from 260 ppm to 400 by 2015

Rate of change the greatest in any carbon store + rate of increase is getting faster

33
Q

How is CO2 in the biosphere changing

A

Increase on biosphere carbon stored as global vegetation mass increases

Additional atmospheric CO2 stimulates more vegetation growth on Earth - greening of previously famed areas in Russia and deliberate afforestation in China and Africa

34
Q

Give a positive feedback loop of the cryosphere

A

Increased warming (especially in polar regions)

Greenland ice sheets melt more rapidly

Reduced surface area of ice

Reduction in albedo

Increase absorbent of solar radiation

35
Q

Photosynthesis is one of the only processes to absorb…..form the……………….

A

CO2

Atmosphere

36
Q

Give some natural processes driving change in the carbon cycle (7)

A

Photosynthesis

Respiration

Decomposition - carbon transferred to soil

Combustion - releases carbon to atmosphere

Volcanic activity

Weathering - movement of carbon from the atmosphere to lithosphere. Atmospheric carbon combines with water to form weak carbonic acid which falls to surface

Burial and Compaction - organic matter is buried. by sediment and becomes compacted

37
Q

Give two human and natural process driving change in the carbon cycle

A

Sequestration - capturing atmospheric CO2 and placing it into long term storage.
Geologic = liquid CO2 injected from power pants to ground.
Biological = plants storing atmospheric CO2 in their stejms/leaves

Wildfires -

38
Q

Give 3 human factors driving change in the carbon cycle

A

Hydrocarbon fuel burning

Farming practices/land use change - land use change is responsible for 10% global CO2 emissions

Deforestation

39
Q

Where is most of the carbon in oceans held

A

Deep oceans

Smaller proportion of carbon at ocean surface where it is subject to rapid ocean-atmosphere has exchange

40
Q

How does carbon enter the ocean

A

Physical diffusion of CO2 gas dissolving in the upper layers of the sea

River discharge and precipitation

Biological absorption of CO2 by surface phytoplankton (photosynthesis)

41
Q

Describe how carbon transfers from surface to deep ocean - and then to atmosphere

A

Once dissolved in surface sea water, downwelling currents of colder, denser sea water transfer CO2 into the deep ocean

Dissolved carbon can remain there for hundreds of years amongst slow moving deep currents

Eventually, these currents reach a coast, there is an up-swelling pf water as pressure is reduced and water warms - CO2 released to atmosphere

42
Q

How does carbon enter oceans through river discharge and precipitation

A

Condensed water vapour combines with atmospheric CO2 to produce acid rain
Effect = oceans can store much larger [proprtion of carbon tan they could if just CO2

River discharge - weathering pf terrestrial rocks containing carbon (chalk) by acid rain rates a soluble bicarbonate calcium that enters oceans

43
Q

What is Marien calcification (acidification inhibits this process)

A

Soluble calcium bicarbonate breaks down which enables marine creatures (plankton/coral) to extract carbon compounds to construct shells

Hydrogen ions separate from calcium bicarbonate leaving carbonate ions that marine creatures can recombine with calcium ions to form biogenic calcium carbon shells

When these creatures die, their remains fall to the sea floor and accurate as deposits (carbon sink)

44
Q

What is marine snow

A

Zooplankton release CO2 in respiration can carbon rich waste falls through ocean layers to sea floor.

When combined with remains fo dead Marien organisms [ marine snow, operates as a biological carbon pump in the oceans

45
Q

Why is the ability of oceans to act as carbon sinks likely to decline in future

A

As Oceana warm and acidify, the ocean-atmosphere exchange puma nd biological pump will become less effective

46
Q

Give a positive feedback loop for the release of methane

A

As air and sea temperatures rise, tundra permafrost melts

Vast quantities if methane are released (23x more potent in global warming than CO2)

47
Q

Give an example fo a negative feedback loop with regards to climate change

A

Rising CO2 and global warming stimulates faster biomass growth

Absorbing more CO2 (however, thought to levels of with further CO2 released)

48
Q

Give a positive feedback loops in oceans

A 
WARMING OCEANS :
ocean temperatures rise 
Reduces their ability to absorb CO2 
Reduced surface plankton 
Less CO2 absorbed by photosynthesis

A level Geography - Physical (19 decks)

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