Carbon Cycle (long & short) all components

Question 1

List all the different stores in all carbon cycles?

Answer 1

hydrosphere (oceans & surface ocean).
Lithosphere (sediment)
Biosphere (terrestrial soil, ecosystems)
Atmosphere

Question 2

How many Pt (average) of carbon at in the following:
Sediment (lithosphere):
Oceans (deep)
Surface Ocean
Terrestrial Soil
Atmosphere
Terrestrial Ecosystems

Answer 2

Sediment (lithosphere): 100,000,000 Pt
Oceanic (deep): 38,000 Pt
Terrestrial Soil: 1,500 Pt
Oceanic (surface): 1,000 Pt
Atmospheric: 560 Pt
Terrestrial Ecosystems: 560 Pt

Question 3

Processes in the carbon cycle

Answer 3

The physical mechanisms that drive the flux of material between different stores.

Question 4

List the 5 processes in the geological carbon cycle

Answer 4

1. Mechanical, Chemical, Biological Weathering.
2. Decomposition
3. Transportation
4. Sedimentation
5. Metamorphosis

Question 5

Where does 80 percent of carbon-containing rock in oceans come from?

Answer 5

80 percent of carbon-containing rock from shell-building (calcifying) organisms (corals), and phytoplankton.

Question 6

List the 3 Weathering processes of rocks (in-situ)

Answer 6

Mechanical, Chemical, and Biological.

Question 7

What is volcanic outgassing?

Answer 7

C02 that exists in Earth’s crust is disturbed by volcanic eruptions, which creates pulses of more diffuse fluxes into the atmosphere.

Question 8

Where does volcanic outgassing commonly happen?

Answer 8

Around tectonic plate boundaries, subduction zones, and spreading ridges.

Question 9

How does Chemical Weathering break down rocks?

Answer 9

Carbonic acid in rain dissolves carbonate-based rocks

Question 10

How does Biological Weathering break down rocks?

Answer 10

Burrowing animals and the roots of break can break up rocks.

Question 11

How does Mechanical Weathering break down rocks?

Answer 11

By frost, shattering and exfoliation produces small easy-to-transport particles.

Question 12

Name the three types of Carbon Cycle Pumps in oceans?

Answer 12

1. Biological Pump
   2, Physical Pump
2. Carbonate Pump

Question 13

What is thermohaline circulation?

Answer 13

The global system of surface and deep water ocean currents id driven by temperature (thermo), and salinity (haline) between different areas of the ocean.

Question 14

Anthropogenic

Answer 14

Processes and activities associated with human activity

Question 15

What unit is used to measure stores

Answer 15

Petagrams (Pg), and Gigatonnes (Gt)

Question 16

Sedimentation

Answer 16

Sediments over millennia accumulate, burying older sediments below, such as shale & limestone

Question 17

Metamorphosis

Answer 17

Deep burial of sedimentary rocks with compression due to plate tectonics causes sedimentary rocks to be altered by heat and pressures into metamorphic ones such as slate and marble

Question 18

From metamorphosis, what does shale and limestone become?

Answer 18

Shale –> Slate, Limestone –> Marble.

Question 19

What is Terrestrial Sequestration?

Answer 19

Organic sequesters of carbon (biosphere)

Question 20

Role of Primary Producers in Terrestrial Sequestration?

Answer 20

They take C02 out of the atmosphere through photosynthesis, and release it via respiration.

Question 21

Animals and plants in Terrestrial Sequestration?

Answer 21

Consumer animals eat plants, meaning carbon from the plants become part of its fats & proteins. Carbon transfers upwards along the food chain.

Question 22

Carbon Fluxes vary: why?

Answer 22

Diurnally - fluxes positive in the day, but negative during night time.
Seasonally - Different hemispheres. Seasons mean winter has fewer plants growing, which leads to respiration. In the summer the opposite occurs.

Question 23

Reservoir Turnover

Answer 23

Rate at which carbon enters and leaves a store, measured by the mass in any store / the exchange flux…

Question 24

Exfoliation

Answer 24

Separation of successive thin shells, or spalls, from massive rock such as granite or basalt

Question 25

What are the 3 components of soil

Answer 25

Climate
Soil Type
Soil Management

Question 26

What is lithification

Answer 26

where sediment compacts and solidifies into solid rock under pressure.

Question 27

Define reservoir turnover

Answer 27

the rate at which carbon enters and leaves a store is measured by the mass of carbon in any store divided by the exchange flux.