Chapter 5

Question 1

What is the carbon cycle?

Answer 1

how carbon moves between the atmosphere, ocean, land biosphere, and rocks one earth

Question 2

What is the most abundant and important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere?

Answer 2

water vapor

Question 3

What give Earth it’s warmth and heating?

Answer 3

water vapor

Question 4

How is water vapor regulated?

Answer 4

evaporation and condensation

Question 5

What is water vapor set by?

Answer 5

Earths temperature

Question 6

What happens to the amount of water vapor if the temperature rises?

Answer 6

increases

Question 7

What happens to the amount of water vapor if the temperature decreases?

Answer 7

decreases

Question 8

What does carbon dioxide absorb?

Answer 8

infrared photons

Question 9

What is the most important greenhouse gas that humans directly influence?

Answer 9

Carbon dioxide

Question 10

What is the primary cause of climate change?

Answer 10

carbon dioxide

Question 11

Is ozone essential for life on Earth?

Answer 11

yes

Question 12

What does ozone absorb?

Answer 12

high-energy UV photons emitted by the sun before they reach Earth’s surface

Question 13

Where is “good” ozone located?

Answer 13

high up in the stratosphere

Question 14

What is “bad” ozone located?

Answer 14

near the ground

Question 15

What is the Keeling Curve?

Answer 15

graph that represents continuous rise in atmospheric CO2 levels over time

Question 16

What is photosynthesis?

Answer 16

Plants absorb CO2 from atmosphere and use it to produce more plant material

Question 17

What is resipiration?

Answer 17

humans, animals, and bacteria consume plant material to produce energy

Question 18

Where is carbon stored?

Answer 18

plants, animals, and organic carbon in soils

Question 19

What does photosynthesis remove from the atmosphere?

Answer 19

CO2

Question 20

What does respiration put back into the atmosphere?

Answer 20

puts out CO2 to balance CO2 removed by photosynthesis

Question 21

What is the Sawtooth annual cycle?

Answer 21

when plants are growing, global photosynthesis exceeds respiration rate (summer)
when plant material produced in summer decays and releases CO2 back into the atmosphere (fall and winter)

Question 22

What happens if permafrost thaws?

Answer 22

organic matter in it will decay and release carbon into the atmosphere

Question 23

What does CO2 readily dissolve in?

Answer 23

water

Question 24

What does CO2 and water turn into?

Answer 24

carbonic acid

Question 25

How does the top ocean exchange CO2 with the atmosphere?

Answer 25

rapidly

Question 26

What layer of the ocean has most of the oceans carbon?

Answer 26

deep ocean

Question 27

What layer does the mixed layer of the ocean exchange carbon with?

Answer 27

deep ocean

Question 28

What do ocean currents do with carbon?

Answer 28

they mix high-carbon water from the mixed layer with low-carbon water from the deep ocean

Question 29

What are turnover times?

Answer 29

average time carbon stays in an ecosystem from entrance to exit

Question 30

How fast does the atmosphere exchange carbon with the land biosphere?

Answer 30

rapidly

Question 31

How fast does the atmosphere exchange carbon with the mixed-layer?

Answer 31

rapidly

Question 32

How fast does the atmosphere exchange carbon with the deep ocean?

Answer 32

slower

Question 33

How is CO2 transferred from rocks into atmosphere?

Answer 33

through volcanic eruptions

Question 34

What is chemical weathering?

Answer 34

removes an equal amount of carbon from the atmosphere and transfers it back into rocks

Question 35

When were fossil fuels formed?

Answer 35

when plants grew (hundreds of millions of years ago) and were buried before carbon in the could be released back into the atmosphere by respiration

Question 36

What is combustion?

Answer 36

fossil fuels combine with oxygen to produce energy, CO2, and water vapor

Question 37

What are land-use changes?

Answer 37

when humans alter the natural landscape

Question 38

What is ocean acidification?

Answer 38

ocean absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere, decreasing the ocean's pH

Question 39

Can CO2 be chemically fingerprinted to show that it comes from fossil fuels?

Answer 39

yes

Question 40

What is carbon fingerprinting based on?

Answer 40

isotopes of carbon

Question 41

What is radiocarbon dating?

Answer 41

determines age of organic materials by measuring amount of Carbon-14 in them

Question 42

When did the increase of atmospheric CO2 start?

Answer 42

Industrial Revolution when society-wide burning of fossil fuels began

Question 43

What is the global warming potential?

Answer 43

warming power relative to CO2

Question 44

What are the most powerful greenhouse gases?

Answer 44

halocarbons

Question 45

What percentage of halocarbons are manmade?

Answer 45

100%