Carbon Cycle Flashcards
What do food chains show?
Feeding relationships between living things.
What are pyramids of biomass?
Pyramids that reveal the mass of living material at each stage in the chain. The amount of material and energy decreases form one stage to the next.
Why is decay an essential life process?
Because it digests food or waste matter and recycles materials.
Why do materials from living things decay?
Because they are digested by micro-organisms.
How do micro-organisms cause decay?
By releasing enzymes that break down compounds to be absorbed by their cells.
What factors effect the rate of decay?
Moisture
Temperature
Amount of oxygen available
When are micro-organisms most active?
When they are in moist, warm and aerobic conditions.
What does the carbon cycle show?
How carbon moves from the atmosphere, through various animals and plants, then back into the atmosphere.
What do all cells contain?
Carbon compounds such as proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
How is carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere?
Green plants and algae by photosynthesis.
How is carbon dioxide returned to the atmosphere?
Organisms return carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by respiration.
It is also released into the atmosphere when fossil fuels such as coal, oil and wood are burned.
How is the carbon passed from one organism to the next?
When animals eat a plant, carbon from that plant become part of the fats and proteins in the animal. The animal then releases carbon dioxide back into the air through respiration.
