1.A.6 - The Carbon Cycle

Question 1

What are the processes called for the movement of carbon between the stores?

Answer 1

Transfers and fluxes

Question 2

What is a net carbon sink?

Answer 2

Carbon entering the store is greater than the carbon leaving the store

Question 3

What is a net carbon source?

Answer 3

Carbon is leaving the store greater than carbon is entering the store

Question 4

What are the processes that involve carbon interacting with the rock cycle?

Answer 4

Weathering, burial, subduction and volcanic eruptions

Question 5

Lithosphere as a major store of carbon

Answer 5

• The crust, upper mantle and soils.
• Inorganic and organic materials
• The majority of carbon is in marine sediments and sedimentary rocks (100mGtC)
• Another 6,000GtC is in fossil fuels, organic soil matter and peat

Question 6

Hydrosphere as a major store of carbon

Answer 6

• Oceans
• Plants on surface layer have sunlight so photosynthesis (about 900GtC)
• Intermediate and deep layer has less and less sunlight with depth (about 37,100GtC)

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Question 7

Cryosphere as a major store of carbon

Answer 7

• Frozen parts of the earth
• 0.01% of total world carbon
• Mostly: frozen organic material in permafrost (~1,400GtC)
- trapped methane
•When snowflakes fell and compacted into ice the CO2 from the atmosphere gets trapped as bubbles of gas in the ice