Carbon Cycle Content

Question 1

What are the three forms of carbon in the carbon cycle?

Answer 1

Inorganic
Organic
Gaseous

Question 2

What is Inorganic carbon?

Answer 2

Found in rocks as bicarbonates and carbonates

Question 3

What is organic carbon?

Answer 3

Found in plant material and living organisms

Question 4

What is gaseous carbon?

Answer 4

Found as CO2 and CH4 (methane)

Question 5

What are the three types of carbon stores?

Answer 5

Terrestrial
Oceanic
Atmospheric

Question 6

What is a carbon flux?

Answer 6

The movement of carbon between stores

Question 7

What is a carbon sink?

Answer 7

A Carbon sink is any store which takes more carbon than it emits

Question 8

What is a carbon source?

Answer 8

Any store that emits more carbon than it stores

Question 9

What is carbon Sequestration?

Answer 9

The transfer of carbon from the atmosphere to other stores and can be natural and artificial

Question 10

What are the main carbon stores, in order of magnitude?

Answer 10

Marine sediments and sedimentary rocks
Oceans
Fossil fuel deposits
Soil organic matter
Atmospheric
Terrestrial plants

Question 11

What is the main store of carbon?

Answer 11

The lithosphere

Question 12

What happens when you remove CO2 from the atmosphere

Answer 12

Plants are sequestering carbon and reducing the potential impacts of climate change

Question 13

What is respiration?

Answer 13

Respiration occurs when plants and animals convert oxygen and glucose into energy

Question 14

What happens to photosynthesis during the day?

Answer 14

Plants photosynthesise more during the day absorbing significantly more CO2 than they emit

Question 15

What happens to photosynthesis during the night?

Answer 15

Plants do not photosynthesise at all during the night but respire releasing more CO2 than they absorb

Question 16

What is combustion?

Answer 16

When fossil fuels and organic matter such as trees are burnt, they emit CO2 into the atmosphere

Question 17

What is decomposition?

Answer 17

When living organisms die, they are broken down by decomposes which respite, returning CO2 into the atmosphere

Question 18

What is the quickest cycle?

Answer 18

Is completed in seconds as plants absorb carbon for photosynthesis and then they release carbon when they respire.

Question 19

How long can dead organic material hold Carbon for?

Answer 19

Can hold it for hundreds of years

Question 20

What is the largest carbon stores?

Answer 20

Oceans. They are 50 times larger than the atmosphere with 93% of l CO2 stored in algae, plants and coral.

Question 21

How do small changes to oceanic carbon levels lead to significant global impacts?

Answer 21

It affects the thermohaline system and the store of carbon in the ocean

Question 22

Explain the phytoplankton stage in the biological carbon pump?

Answer 22

Phytoplankton photosynthesis, they take in carbon and turn it into atmospheric carbon. When they get eaten, carbon is passed through the food chain. CO2 is also released back into the water as these organisms respire.

Question 23

Explain the animal shells in the carbon cycle?

Answer 23

Some organisms like plankton sequester CO2 turning the carbon into their hard outer shells and inner skeletons. When these organisms die, some of their shells dissolve into the ocean water meaning the carbon becomes part of the deep ocean currents.

Question 24

Describe the process of sedimentation?

Answer 24

Any dead organisms which sink to the seafloor become buried and compressed, eventually forming limestone sediments. Over a long time period these can turn into fossil fuels (fossilisation)

Question 25

What happens when CO2 is dissolved into the ocean?

Answer 25

This process occurs on the surface of the oceans where CO2 reacts with water to form carbonic acid. As the concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere increase, oceans absorb more CO2 causing them to be more acidic.

Question 26

Explain ocean acidification

Answer 26

The increased concentration of CO2 in the ocean creates more carbonic acid. This has long lasting effects. Such as coral reef bleeching

Question 27

What happens in the physical pump?

Answer 27

1) these move carbon compounds to different parts of the ocean in downwelling and upwelling currents
2) downwelling occurs in parts of the ocean where cold, denser water sinks
3) these currents bring dissolved bring dissolved carbon dioxide down to the deep ocean.
4) once there, it moves in slow-moving deep ocean currents, staying there for hundreds of years
5) eventually, these deep ocean currents, part of the thermohaline, circulation, return to the surface by upwelling
6) the cold deep ocean water warms as it rises towards the ocean surface and some of the dissolved carbon dioxide is released back into the atmosphere

Question 28

Explain the carbonate pumps

Answer 28

1) These form sediments from dead organisms that fall to the ocean floor, especially the hard outer shells and skeletons of fish, crustaceans and corals, all rich in calcium carbonate

Question 29

What is terrestrial sequestering?

Answer 29

Terrestrial primary producers sequester carbon during photosynthesis; some of this carbon is returned to the atmosphere during respiration by consumer organisms

Question 30

Explain the process of Terrestrial sequestering?

Answer 30

1) (primary producers in an ecosystem) sequester carbon out of the atmosphere during photosynthesis. This means carbon enters the food chains
2) when animals consume plant matte, the carbon is sequestered in the plant and becomes part of their fat and protein. Respiration returns some of the carbon back to the atmosphere
3) waste from animals is eaten by micro-organisms and detritus feeders
4) as a consequence, carbon becomes part of these creatures. When plants and animals die carbon is released into the soil