SG1: Carbon Cycle Flashcards
How does the tree take in carbon dioxide?
Photosythesis
How is some of the co2 from the tree lost into the atmosphere?
Respiration
What happens to leaf litter and dead wood?
It decomposes to form humus or organic material
How does the c02 from the dead leaf litter get into the atmosphere?
Respiration returns some of this co2 into the atmosphere.
What is sedimentation?
The deposition of sediments usually in a body of water.
What happens to the carbon during sedimentation?
Can be trapped.
What is carbon sink?
Where colder ocean waters are diffusing more co2 INTO sea surface water than is diffusing out to the atmosphere.
What is a carbon source?
In warmer oceans, more co2 diffuses OUT rather than into the ocean.
What is the fast carbon cycle?
carbon circulates most rapidly between the atmosphere, the oceans, living organisms, and soils. These transfers are between 10 and 1000 times faster than the slow carbon cycle.
What is the slow carbon cycle?
The slow carbon cycle can take 10,000 years to potentially millions of years to complete. It explains how weathering and plate tectonic processes control the amount of co2 in the atmosphere.
What is ocean surface?
Carbon is stored in a dissolved form in water and in the tissue of marine organisms such as phytoplankton.
What are the fluxes on the ocean surface?
Carbon fluxes of photosynthesis and reparation are faster transfers of carbon between the ocean surface, marina biota and the atmosphere.
What does the deep ocean consist of?
The death & decomposition of Marine organisms. When they die, they accumulate on the ocean floor & over million years they become compressed and come carbon rich sedimentary rock.
What are the fluxes of carbon in the deep ocean?
Very slow & can involve lithification into fossil fuels or subduction into mantle which is eventually released into the atmosphere through volcanic eruptions.
What is co2 like in the winter months?
Less photosynthesis which means atmospheric co2 is higher. It is higher in the northern hemisphere because there is most fossil fuel combustion by industry and vehicles. This allows co2 concentrations to climb all winter.
