Elemental Cycling Flashcards
Where did the carbon in the skin on the tip of your finger come from?
the food you ate
you ate the pumpkin pie to get the carbon, the pumpkin got the carbon from CO2 through photosynthesis
Carbon assimilates from the air into an organism through _____.
PHOTOSYNTHESIS
Carbon moves from an organism into the air through _____.
RESPIRATION
Carbon moves from one organism to another organism through _____ and _____.
PREDATION and HERBIVORY
Carbon dissolves into and precipitates out of the_____.
OCEAN
Carbon moves from a dead organism into the soil through ____.
DECOMPOSITION
Carbon moves from the ground into the air through burning ____ ____.
FOSSIL FUELS
When did the balance of equal incoming and outgoing carbon change and how?
early 1900s when burning of fossil fuels began
When fossil fuels are burned, their carbon molecules…
turn from a solid or liquid state to a GAS, then emitted into the atmosphere as CO2
How might humans further change the carbon cycle to combat climate change?
direct air capture through geoengineering
Which of the following statements
about carbon stores is/are TRUE?
A. Like energy, some carbon stored by photosynthesis is lost due to
plant respiration.
B. Removing CO2 from the atmosphere through direct air capture would create an imbalance between the inputs and outputs of the carbon cycle
C. Carbon that is cycling through Earth’s ecosystem is stored in plant
tissues and the soil, which can lead to the production of fossil fuels.
D. A & C
E. All of the above
D. A & C
Nitrogen is a key component of amino acids and nucleic acids, making it _____.
a ‘building block’ for both proteins and DNA in all living organisms
Most of our atmosphere is made up of ____ ___
Nitrogen gas (N2)
What is often a limiting resource?
Nitrogen
nitrogen fixation
nitrogen fixation (conversion to ammonium or nitrate that is then dissolved in water and taken up through plant roots
