The carbon cycle
Questions
1. Where is most of earth’s carbon located and in what
form? Ocean
2. What is the role of each of the following in the carbon
cycle?
a. Primary producer – gets carbon from the atmosphere
b. Consumers – pass the carbon to higher trophic levels and
release it through respiration back into the atmosphere
c. Decomposers – break down dead matter to release
carbon into the atmosphere through respiration in the
mitochondria of decomposers
3. What two process we have studied use carbon?
Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration
4. How does carbon enter the atmosphere?
Burning fossil fuels
5. How does carbon exit the ecosystem and re-enter the
atmosphere?
Plants take in carbon and then when animals die, decomposers
and detritivores break down organic matter
6. What happens to the carbon in organisms when they die?
Decomposers and detritivores break down organic matter
7. How is carbon stored for long periods of time?
Fossil Fuels
8. How is carbon stored in aquatic ecosystems?
In a solid form of limestone
9. What role does photosynthesis have in the carbon cycle?
It requires carbon from the atmosphere to undergo photosynthesis
to make carbohydrates
10. What role does cellular respiration have in the carbon
cycle? It releases the carbon back into the atmosphere