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Geography > The biogeochemical carbon cycle- Slow Cycle > Flashcards

The biogeochemical carbon cycle- Slow Cycle Flashcards

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1
Q

What is Carbon?

A

Element C
Exists in gas, liquid and solid state

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2
Q

What is the movement of carbon also known as?

A

The carbon cycle

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3
Q

How does carbon occur? (How does it come about)

A

Naturally
Due to human actions

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4
Q

What is the carbon cycle?

A

the exchange of carbon between its 4 main resevoirs (stores)

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5
Q

What are the 4 main resevoirs of the carbon cycle?

A

Atmosphere (air)
Terrestrial biosphere (plants on land)
Oceans (water)
Sediments (rocks)

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6
Q

What does IPCC stand for?

A

Intergovernmental panel on climate change

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7
Q

What is the IPCC?

A

leading international organisation for the assessment of climate change

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8
Q

What does anthropogenic mean?

A

Processes and actions associated with human activity

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9
Q

What is a petagram? (Pg)

A

1 billion tonnes
the unit used to measure carbon
AKA gigatonne (Gt)

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10
Q

What is reservoir turnover?

A

the rate at which carbon enters and leaves a store (kind of like residence time)

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11
Q

What is flux?

A

Movement
Transfer
Flow

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12
Q

What is sequestering?

A

the natural storage of carbon by physical or biological processes

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13
Q

What is the balanced carbon cycle?

A

sources equal sinks with no change in size of stores (in equilibrium)

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14
Q

What is a negative feedback loop?

A

stabilising effect
returns system to original state

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15
Q

What is a positive feedback loop?

A

amplifying effect
Moving system to a new state

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16
Q

What is the geological carbon cycle?

A

how rocks and sediments store carbon
slow part of the cycle

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17
Q

How much carbon is cycled through the geological carbon cycle per year?

A

10-100 million tonnes

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18
Q

What is the biological carbon cycle?

A

fast part of the cycle where carbon is sequestered and flows between atmosphere, oceans, ocean sediments, vegetation, soils and fresh water

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19
Q

How much carbon goes through the biological carbon cycle per year?

A

10,000 to 100,000 million tonnes

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20
Q

What is the anthropogenic carbon cycle?

A

caused by human activities also fast

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21
Q

How much carbon is cycled per year through the anthropogenic carbon cycle?

A

1 billion tonnes

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22
Q

How many petagrams of carbon are there in the different stores? (Just remember stores)

A

Atmosphere- 589
Terrestrial ecosystem- 550
Soil- 1950
permafrost- 1700
Fossil fuel organic carbon store- 1471
Marine biota- 3
Dissolved organic carbon store- 700
Sedimentary rock stores- 83,000,000
Surface ocean- 900
ocean floor calcareous store- 1750
intermediate and deep ocean store- 37100

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23
Q

What are the stores in the carbon cycle?

A

Atmosphere
Terrestrial ecosystem
Soil
permafrost
Fossil fuel organic carbon store
Marine biota
Dissolved organic carbon store
Sedimentary rock stores
Surface ocean
ocean floor calcareous store
intermediate and deep ocean store

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24
Q

What are all the fluxes to the atmosphere in the carbon cycle? (with amount)

A

Freshwater outgassing-1.0pgC/yr
Volcanic eruptions-0.1pgc/yr
Land use change- 1.1 pgC/yr
Fossil fuels use and cement production- 7.8pgC/yr
Respiration and fire- 118.7pgc/yr
Oceans to atmosphere- 78.4pgc/yr

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25
Q

What are all the fluxes from the atmosphere in the carbon cycle?

A

Photosynthesis-123PgC/yr
Atmosphere to ocean- 80PgC/yr

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26
Q

What other fluxes are part of the carbon cycle? (Involving water and soil)

A

Burial-0.2PgC/yr
Soil to river-1.7PgC/yr
River to sea- 0.9PgC/yr

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27
Q

What earth rotation factor reduces solar intensity on the surface?

A

tilt and speed meaning one area doesn’t receive too much solar radiation

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28
Q

What would the temperature be if the green house effect didn’t take place?

A

-17*C

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29
Q

What does the % of carbon in coal depend on?

A

the duration and intensity of heat and pressure on wood (latter depends on formation: more depth- more pressure and heat- higher carbon content)

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30
Q

Which fossil fuel in the dirtiest?

A

Coal (oil middle, gas least)

31
Q

How much of the worlds electricity is generated from coal?

A

40%

32
Q

What was the first step to coal formation?

A

During the carboniferous when vegetation was significant trees (made of carbon) died and were partially decayed in swamps (wet, boggy)

33
Q

What was the second step to coal formation?

A

overtime further layers of vegetation sequestered the lowest layers of dead vegetation squeezing out water and volatiles

34
Q

What was the third step to coal formation? (Depth)

A

With increasing depth increases pressure and heat compressing the carbon into rocks called coal

35
Q

What was the fourth step to coal formation? (benefit of coal formation)

A

carbon trapped in coal underground means it is not affecting the atmospheric stores

36
Q

What are the different types of coal?

A

Peat (40-55% C)
Lignite (40-55% C)
Bituminous (40-80% C)
Anthracite (80-95% C)

37
Q

How is the carbon from limestone released into the atmosphere?

A

Cement production when turned into a powder its easily blown into the atmosphere

38
Q

What was the first step to limestone formation?

A

shell fragments are slowly compacted as the weight of the accumulating sediment increases

39
Q

How do hard rock fragments on sea bed cement together? (Limestone formation)

A

by precipitation of dissolved calcium carbonate in the pore spaces

40
Q

What was the third step to limestone formation? (Burial and recrystallisation)

A

further compaction and burial may cause same alteration or recrystallisation of the calcite (carbonate mineral) to make the rock even harder

41
Q

What type of marine organisms form limestone?

A

hard bodied organisms e.g. skeletons

42
Q

What type of marine organisms form crude oil?

A

soft bodied e.g. jelly fish

43
Q

What is early stage crude oil called?

A

kerogen

44
Q

what is the main survey methods for crude oil

A

seismic survey is the main method

45
Q

What are seismic surveys?

A

reflected sound waves to produce a “CAT scan” of the Earth’s subsurface

46
Q

How do humans affect the slow carbon cycle?

A

They speed up the movement of carbon from the long term stores

47
Q

Why is it a problem with humans speeding up the movement of carbon from rocks?

A

Created imbalance
Too much carbon in atmosphere flipping system

48
Q

What should you never write about with glacial movement in an exam?

A

The glacier moves up slope it is the receding action which gives the illusion of moving up slope but the snout is just retreating

49
Q

What soft bodied marine organism are the biggest part of oil production?

A

Phytoplankton

50
Q

What is the difference between land and ocean stores of carbon?

A

Land- CO2 and light go into trees carbon leave tree through roots and enters soil where over time coal formed

Ocean- Phytoplankton absorb light and CO2 which sink to ocean floor over time creating oil or hard bodied organism form limestone

51
Q

What survey methods are used to find coal?

A

Seismic survey
Gravitational survey
Geological survey

52
Q

What is the first step in the formation of crude oil?

A

Phytoplankton absorb carbon as part of photosynthesis and this is stored in their bodies

53
Q

What is step 2 of crude oil formation? (Sink)

A

Upon phytoplankton death they sink to the ocean floor

54
Q

What is step 3 of the formation of crude oil?

A

Ocean floor is anoxic (no oxygen) so they don’t fully decompose instead they form kerogen (thick, gloopy tar)

55
Q

What is step 4 of crude oil formation?

A

Over time and with increasing pressure of overlying sediments the kerogen turns to crude oil (unfiltered/ unrefined until fractional distillation occurs)

56
Q

Is chemical weathering a fast or slow process?

A

Slow

57
Q

What type of carbon store does chemical weathering affect?

A

Limestone

58
Q

What is step one of chemical weathering? (Limestone-carbonic acid)

A

Atmospheric CO2 and water react to form carbonic acid (dissolves limestone)

59
Q

How does carbonic acid cause chemical weathering?

A

Carbonic acid falls as rain -although weak- it reacts with surface rock minerals (exposed by uplifting) dissolving them into their component ions including calcium

60
Q

What happens to calcium ions in solution that drain into rivers and the ocean?

A

they combine with bicarbonate ions and precipitate out as minerals such as calcite (CaCO3)

61
Q

How do organisms with shells get the calcium needed to create them?

A

Organism with shell dies
Sinks to the sea floor creating limestone
Uplifting exposes limestone
Weathering occurs
Calcium flows back into ocean

62
Q

How many of the earths extinction events have been caused by volcanoes?

A

5

63
Q

When was the last extinction event and what was the mortality rate?

A

65 million years 90%

64
Q

How much more carbon do humans release than volcanos?

A

100 times

65
Q

What does submarine deposition and burial turn the calcite sediment into?

A

into limestone

66
Q

What is stage 5 of the chemical weathering process?(slabpull)

A

Seafloor limestone is sub-ducted under continental margin by slab pull

67
Q

What is stage 6 of the chemical weathering process? (magma)

A

Some of the carbon rises back up to the surface as magma in a pluton after pressure and melting

68
Q

What is stage 7 of the chemical weathering process? (degases)

A

Magma degases releasing CO2 back into the atmosphere

69
Q

What is outgassing?

A

Pockets of CO2 exist in the earths crust and the gas may be released into the atmosphere by volcanic eruptions or earthquake activity

70
Q

What are some examples of outgassing processes?

A

Volcanic eruptions
Hot springs and geysers
Direct emissions from fractures in earths crust

71
Q

How many metric tonnes of carbon do volcanoes emit per year?

A

130-380 million

72
Q

How many tonnes of carbon do humans emit per year?

A

30billion

73
Q

How can the GHG effect change water hazards?

A

GHG effect - air hold 7% more water per *c so worse rain and floods, more glacial ablation and deposition and formation of periglacial landscapes, more meltwater in rivers causing sea level rise and environmental refugees)

Geography (103 decks)

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