carbon eq1 Flashcards
what is carbon
chemical element
forms the building blocks of life
What is the carbon cycle?
stored and moved between spheres through flows of fluxes
closed system
What are carbon stores?
can add carbon to atmosphere (sources) and remove carbon (sinks)
What happens when the sources equal the sinks?
the carbon cycle is in EQUILIBRIUM
What is the atmosphere?
CO2 and methane
What is the lithosphere?
fossil fuels and limestone/calcium carbonates
What is the biosphere?
living and dead organisms
What is the hydrosphere?
dissolved co2
What is a flux?
rate of flow between stores
photosynthesis - 120petagrams per year
What is the slow carbon cycle?
the cycling of carbon between surface bedrock and ocean, or atmospheric stores
What is the fast carbon cycle?
the cycling of carbon from living things into the atmoshphere
What is sedimentary rock?
Type of rock formed by deposition and compacted with sediment, to form a sedimentary rock
What is limestone?
Have to have at least 50% of calcium carbonate to be classed as limestone
Formed in the sea
Grains that make up the calcium carbonate, through shells and skeletons of marine life, such as, PHYTOPLANKTON
How is coal formed?
Formed millions of years ago when earth was covered with swampy forests
Plants grew and died and fell into swamp waters
Thick layer of dead plants rotting in swamp
Water and dirt washed in which stopped the decaying process
Separate layers formed and the weight of these layers packed down the lower layers of plant matter
Heat and pressure produced chemical and physical changes in the plant layers which forced out oxygen and left rich carbon deposits
Material that had been plants is now COAL
What is Sequestration?
The capture and long-term storage of carbon dioxide
How much carbon is stored in the ocean?
50x greater than carbon levels in the atmosphere
Stored in the ocean for several thousands of years
Carbon dioxide molecules diffuse into the sea surface water
What is the physical pump (THERMOHALINE CIRCULATION)?
Occurs when water in oceanic surface currents is carried from low latitudes in the equator to high latitudes at the poles
As it moves to higher latitudes, it cools which makes it heavy enough to sink below the surface layer. In some places, it goes all the way to the deep ocean flow when it can remain for hundred of years
What is phytoplankton?
Microscopic marine plants
What is the biological pump?
Phytoplankton photosynthesise sunlight at the ocean surface, taking up carbon dioxide
Once in the food web, it’s eaten by other marine creatures, carbon moves down into the twilight and deep zones in the ocean
When plankton and larger marine organisms eat, die and decompose, they produce sinking carbon-containing particles called MARINE SNOW
What is Marine Snow?
A shower of organic material falling from upper waters to the deep ocean
What is the Carbonate Pump?
When co2 diffusing into the ocean, it combines with water molecules and produces biocarbinate ions
The biocarbinate ions combines with calcium ions to form calcium carbonate
Shell-building organisms use calcium carbonate to build their shells, plates and inner skeletons
When shell builders die and sink, the carbon in their shells is transported down to the deep ocean where the carbon can become part of seafloor sediments
However, many shells dissolve before reaching the seafloor sediments, a process that releases co2 into deep ocean currents
If they do reach the sea bed, eventually with build-up of layers and tectonic processes these are transformed into limestone
