natural factors leading to change in the carbon cycle

Question 1

what are the natural factors which lead to a change in the carbon cycle?

Answer 1

volcanic activity
wild fires
orbital change

Question 2

what is magma?

Answer 2

a molten rock mixture found under the earth’s surface made up of gasses, water vapour, co2 and sulphur dioxide

Question 3

what are the driving forces behind volcanic eruptions?

Answer 3

the amount of gas combined with temperature and viscosity of magma

Question 4

what happens when volcanoes erupt?

Answer 4

these gasses are released into the atmosphere

Question 5

how can volcanoes that don’t erupt still release co2?

Answer 5

through the soil, volcanic vents and fumeroles

Question 6

volcanic activity contributes so little.

Answer 6

volcanoes have produced less than 1% of the c02 released currently by human activity.

Question 7

how much carbon do volcanoes emit?

Answer 7

at present volcanoes emit between 130 and 180 million tonnes of c02 each year.

Question 8

what are forests?

Answer 8

a carbon sink and through the process of photosynthesis trees absorb co2

Question 9

what happens if forests are burned in a forest fire?

Answer 9

if they are burnt by forest fire their carbon is released back into the atmosphere as co2
photosynthesis is also removed so less carbon is in the atmosphere

Question 10

in the long term how can forests fires be critical?

Answer 10

forests fires can be critical for new growth and rejuvenation in a forest as nutrients are returned to the soil
new vegetation reabsorbs much of the c02 that the fire released

Question 11

large and more frequent fires

Answer 11

large and more frequent fires caused by humans is threatening the natural balance of carbon being released and absorbed

Question 12

how can wildfires be started naturally?

Answer 12

through lightening strikes

Question 13

what happened in indonesia in 1997-1998?

Answer 13

• they had lots of fires which burnt out of control for months
• smoke spread across south-east asia
• this released large amounts of co2 into the atmosphere and there was a noticeable strike in carbon emissions

Question 14

what does eccentricity mean?

Answer 14

orbital change

Question 15

what is eccentricity (orbital change?)

Answer 15

this is the change in shape of the Earth’s orbit around the sun.

Question 16

what happens to orbital change every 100k years and as a result the world?

Answer 16

every 100k years when the earth’s orbit is eliptical we spend less time close to the sun
this means we get less solar energy which tends to cool the earth
the opposite is temps start to rise at the end of a glacial period and there is a huge surge of Co2 released into the atmosphere by the thawing of ice