Carbon EQ1

Question 1

What is the biological pump?

Answer 1

• Move carbon dioxide from the ocean surface to marine plants called phytoplankton through photosynthesis
• Creates food for the food chain
• Only 30% sinks to deeper ocean- before eventually turning back into CO2

Question 2

What is the physical pump?

Answer 2

• Upwelling and downwelling of carbon compounds
• Cold dense water sinks to slow-moving ocean currents and eventually due to thermohaline circulation they come back up to the surface and some dissolved CO2 is released back into the atmosphere.

Question 3

What is the carbonate pump?

Answer 3

-Form sediment from dead organisms that fall to the oceans floor, especially hard outer shells and skeletons of fish

Question 4

What is net primary productivity?

Answer 4

• The amount of organic matter available for humans and other animals to harvest or consume

Question 5

What is photosynthesis role and what affects it?

Answer 5

• Keeping carbon dioxide levels relatively constant and thereby helping to regulate earths mean temperature
• Varies spatially with NPP- highest in warm and wet parts of the world

Question 6

Why is soil health important and what is the aspects of a healthy soil?

Answer 6

• Key element in the normal functioning of the carbon cycle- depends on amount of organic carbon stored in the soil
• large surface reservoir of available nutrients which help productivity of ecosystems- carbon helps to give soil its moisture-retention capacity- small amount of soil erosion can have huge impact