CL005 Carbon cycle with answers.notebook
June 04, 2013
Carbon Source and Carbon Sinks Carbon Source: A process that releases carbon into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide
Carbon Sink: A natural environment that's able to absorb (or remove) carbon dioxide from the atmosphere Indicate whether the following are a carbon source or a carbon sink
Oil
trees
burning fossil fuels
animals
burial of organic matter
Coal
Atmosphere
Vegetation
limestone
(formed from carbon containing shells)
Marine sediments and sedimentary rocks
plastics
forest fires
oceans
bacteria consuming dead organic matter
cellular respiration
Release agents: are what triggers those sources to release their carbons, these include volcanic activity, forest fires, and many human activities.
Carbon Cycle : when studying the carbon cycle it is important to focus on how the carbon atom moves from one molecule to another
Cellular Respiration
Photosynthesis
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CL005 Carbon cycle with answers.notebook
June 04, 2013
The Carbon Cycle:
carbon
All living things are made of __________. Carbon is a part of the ocean, air, and dynamic
even rocks. Because the Earth is a ___________ place, carbon does not stay still. move
It is on the _______!
The carbon atom has the ability to form bonds with as many as four other atoms (including other carbon atoms) and to form double bonds to itself. gas
Carbon compounds can be _______, _________, or ______ under conditions solid
liquid
commonly found on the earth's surface. Because of this, carbon can help form solid minerals (such as limestone), 'squishy' organisms (such as plants and animals), and can be dissolved in water or carried around the world through the atmosphere as carbon dioxide gas. Carbon atoms continually move through living organisms, the oceans, the atmosphere, and the crust of the planet. This movement is known as the carbon cycle
______________. The paths taken by carbon atoms through this cycle are millions
extremely complex, and may take ___________ of years to come full circle.
carbon dioxide
Plants use ________________ and sunlight to make their own food and grow. The carbon becomes part of the plant. Plants that die and are buried may turn into fossil fuels
_____________ made of carbon like coal and oil over millions of years. When humans burn fossil fuels, most of the carbon quickly enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
greenhouse
Carbon dioxide is a _____________ gas and traps heat in the atmosphere. Without it and other greenhouse gases, Earth would be a frozen world. But humans have burned so much fuel that there is about 30% more carbon dioxide in the air today than there was about 150 years ago, and Earth is becoming a warmer place. In fact, ice cores show us that there is now more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than there has been in the last 420,000 years.
http://eo.ucar.edu/kids/green/
cycles6.htm
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CL005 Carbon cycle with answers.notebook
June 04, 2013
The Carbon Cycle:
• Carbon moves from the atmosphere to plants.
In the atmosphere, carbon is attached to oxygen in a gas called carbon dioxide (CO2). With the help of the Sun, through the process of photosynthesis, carbon dioxide is pulled from the air to make plant food from carbon.
• Carbon moves from plants to animals.
Through food chains, the carbon that is in plants moves to the animals that eat them. Animals that eat other animals get the carbon from their food too.
• Carbon moves from plants and animals to the ground.
When plants and animals die, their bodies, wood and leaves decay bringing the carbon into the ground. Some becomes buried miles underground and will become fossil fuels in millions and millions of years.
• Carbon moves from living things to the atmosphere.
Each time you exhale, you are releasing carbon dioxide gas (CO2) into the atmosphere. Animals and plants get rid of carbon dioxide gas through a process called respiration.
• Carbon moves from fossil fuels to the atmosphere when fuels are burned.
When humans burn fossil fuels to power factories, power plants, cars and trucks, most of the carbon quickly enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide gas. Each year, five and a half billion tons of carbon is released by burning fossil fuels. That’s the weight of 100 million adult African elephants! Of the huge amount of carbon that is released from fuels, 3.3 billion tons enters the atmosphere and most of the rest becomes dissolved in seawater.
•
Carbon moves from the atmosphere to the oceans. The oceans, and other bodies of water, soak up some carbon from the atmosphere.
Sources of CO2
Sinks of CO2
1 Respiration
• • 1 Tissue
• • 2
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CL005 Carbon cycle with answers.notebook
June 04, 2013
An example of The Carbon Cycle:
Consider, for example, the journey of a "typical" carbon atom that existed in the atmosphere as part of a carbon dioxide molecule some 360 million years ago, during the Carboniferous Period. That molecule drifted into the leaf of a large fern growing in the extensive tropical swamp forests of that time.
Through photosynthesis, the oxygen from the molecule was released back into the air and the carbon atom was removed from the molecule and used to build a molecule of sugar.
The sugar could have been broken down by the plant at a later time to release the energy stored inside, but this particular sugar molecule was transformed instead into a long­lived structural part of one of the plant cells. Soon after, the fern died and the remains sank into the muck at the bottom of the swamp. Over thousands of years, more plants grew in the swamp and their remains also sank into the swamp, forming a layer of dead plant material many meters thick. Gradually, the climate changed, becoming drier and less tropical. Sand, dust, and other materials slowly covered the ancient swamp and sealed the decaying vegetation under an ever­thickening layer of sediment. The sediment hardened, turning to sedimentary rock. The carbon atom stayed trapped in the remains of the long­vanished swamp while the pressure of the layers above slowly turned the material into coals.
Some 360 million years later, in the 1900s, the coal bed was mined by humans and burned to fuel industrial civilization.
The process of burning released the energy stored in the carbon compounds in the coal and reunited the carbon atom with oxygen to form again.
The carbon was released to the atmosphere through the smokestack and the journey continues. Many other paths are possible, some taking only hours or days to trace, others, like the one above, many millions of years.
How do you get to school?
Do you switch off the lights when you leave a room?
Do you leave your television on standby/in sleep mode? Do you recycle? Never Sometimes As much as possible
Do you buy locally produced food?
How often do you buy new things? (for example, clothes, cd’s, computer games etc) Have you ever planted a tree?
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CL005 Carbon cycle with answers.notebook
June 04, 2013
The Carbon Cycle and the Greenhouse Effect Name: _______________
1. Carbon Sinks: Anything that ___________________ carbon from the atmosphere.
2. Carbon Sources: Anything that ___________________ carbon to the atmosphere.
3. Release agents: Anything that __________ those sources to release their carbons.
4. How would cutting down a forest affect the carbon cycle?
5. How would driving your car everyday affect the carbon cycle?
6. Which would be better for the environment, driving in a small fuel efficient Car or car pooling with other people in a larger, less fuel efficient car? Why?
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CL005 Carbon cycle with answers.notebook
June 04, 2013
7. What are some actions that humans do that increase the amount of carbon dioxide (or greenhouse gases) in the atmosphere? List 5.
8. What could you do to reduce your "carbon footprint"? (the amount of carbon that you release to the atmosphere). List 5 things.
9. In your own words, what is a greenhouse gas?
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