Unit 1: Carbon Cycle Flashcards
Photosynthesis
When producers photosynthesize, they take carbon and convert it into sugar.
Respiration
When sugars are made back into carbon, like when organisms respire or die and are broken down.
Combustion
Plant matter and fossil fuels are converted into carbon by fire or burning.
Sedimentation
Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) stores carbon until is eventually turns into rock like limestone or dolomite rock.
Carbon sources
Processes that emit carbon.
Carbon sinks
Things that hold carbon.
Seven processes of the carbon cycle
Burial, combustion, exchange, extraction, photosynthesis, respiration, and sedimentation.
The fast part of the carbon cycle is ______, the slow part is _______.
biotic, abiotic
Petroleum hydrocarbons are what we use as
Fossil fuels
What percentage of total body weight of living organisms does carbon make up?
20%, it is the element of life.
What kind of cycle is the carbon cycle?
Biogeochemical, meaning a naturally occurring movement of molecules.
What is the largest pool of carbon in the slow cycle?
Calcium carbonate
Carbon’s two main jobs
Regulating temperature and it is the building molecule for energy.
More carbon=
Hotter
