Carbon Cycle Basics
One of the main carbon pools on Earth?
What are the oceans?
The organism that performs photosynthesis in the ocean.
What is plankton?
The hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere and geosphere.
This major human activity increases carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
What is burning fossil fuels?
This reservoir stores 840 Gt of carbon and changes quickly.
What is the atmosphere?
The molecule you begin as in the Carbon Quest game.
What is carbon dioxide?
This happens to carbon during photosynthesis.
It becomes organic molecules like sugar and glucose.
The geosphere.
Another name for burning fossil fuels.
What is combustion?
This reservoir is the largest in the carbon cycle.
Rocks (about 60,000,000 Gt)
This is what happens to carbon when an aquatic organism dies and decays.
It sinks and becomes locked away in ocean sediments.
What do living things use carbon-based food for?
To produce usable energy through respiration.
This process releases carbon from living things back into the atmosphere.
What is respiration?
Cutting down forests affects the carbon cycle because...
Trees can no longer remove carbon dioxide through photosynthesis.
How does carbon dioxide enter the ocean from the atmosphere?
It dissolves in water and becomes bicarbonate.
The process in which plants absorb carbon.
What is photosynthesis?
This gas is released during respiration.
What is carbon dioxide?
This is the role of decomposers in the carbon cycle.
They break down dead things and release carbon through respiration.
What has caused the extreme increase of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere since 1800?
Burning of fossil fuels during industrialization.
What is land biomass mostly made of?
Plants and decomposing material in soil.
This happens to the carbon when fossil fuels are burned.
It is released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (combustion).
Photosynthesis and respiration both cycle carbon. Which one removes carbon dioxide from the air?
Photosynthesis
How do dead organisms become fossil fuels?
They get buried without fully decomposing over millions of years.
List two ways humans can reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Using renewable energy, conserving energy, fuel efficient transportation, carpooling, sustainable agriculture, recycling, forest conservation.
How does carbon dioxide leave the ocean and re-enter the atmosphere?
Bicarbonate converts back into carbon dioxide and escapes to the air.