Stores And Fluxes

Question 1

What percentage of what release comes from combustion of fossil fuels?

Answer 1

90% of anthropogenic carbon release

Question 2

What percentage of anthropogenic co2 released is absorbed by oceans and plants?

Answer 2

24% oceans

26% plants

Question 3

What have global co2 concentrations increased by?

Answer 3

From less than 320 ppm in 1960 to 400 ppm at present

Question 4

Equation for photosynthesis?

Answer 4

Carbon dioxide + water - light energy = glucose + oxygen

Question 5

What do the green plants use to absorb light energy?

Answer 5

Chlorophyll

Question 6

Equation for respiration?

Answer 6

Oxygen + water - light energy = energy + co2

Question 7

What is combustion essentially?

Answer 7

When organic material is burned

Question 8

What is biomass combustion?

Answer 8

Burning of living and dead vegetation

Question 9

What does biomass combustion mainly happen?

Answer 9

Boreal forests in Alaska, Canada, Russia and China

Question 10

What is carbon sequestration?

Answer 10

The transfer of carbon from the atmosphere to the plants, soils, rock formations and oceans

Question 11

What is geological sequestration?

Answer 11

Where co2 is captured and then injected in liquid form to store underground

Question 12

What is terrestrial/biological sequestration?

Answer 12

Where plants capture co2 from the atmosphere and then store it as carbon in the stems and roots of the plants

Question 13

What does weathering involve?

Answer 13

The breakdown or decay of rocks in their original place/close to the surface

Question 14

What forms when carbon dioxide is absorbed by rainwater?

Answer 14

Acidic carbonic acid

Question 15

What happens during a series of complex chemical reactions?

Answer 15

Rocks will slowly dissolve with the carbon being held in the solution

Question 16

What leads to vertical deep mixing?

Answer 16

A negative correlation between the temperature of the water and the amount of co2 that can be dissolved

Question 17

When does vertical deep mixing occur?

Answer 17

When warm water in oceanic surface currents is carried from the warm tropics to the cold polar regions

Question 18

What happens when cold water returns to the surface?

Answer 18

It warms up and loses carbon dioxide

Question 19

What does vertical circulation act as?

Answer 19

An enormous carbon pump

Question 20

What is a biological pump?

Answer 20

The action of organisms moving carbon in one direction