4. Carbon Cycling Flashcards
(25 cards)
What is the acronym for remembering the most important elements for life?
CHOP
Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorous
What does photosynthesis use and produce?
H2O and CO2 and produces glucose and oxygen
What does respiration take and produce?
Takes glucose and oxygen and produces H2O and CO2
Are organic carbons (glucose etc) reduced or oxidised?
Reduced, e.g. carbon dioxide to glucose by photosynthesis is reduction
Are inorganic carbons (CO2, CO3, bicarbonate, carbonic acid etc) reduced or oxidised?
Oxidised, e.g. glucose to carbon dioxide by respiration is oxidation.
What is oxidation?
Loss of electrons
What is reduction?
Gain of electrons
What is a redox reaction?
Swapping electrons
What does large amounts of reduced sugars (organic carbons) imply about the environment they’re in?
Lots of oxygen somewhere else, since reduction processes such as photosynthesis produce oxygen as well as reduced carbons
What reaction must happen alongside an oxidation reaction?
A reduction to balance out
What is the meaning of the ‘oxidation state’ of an atom in a chemical compound?
Describes degree of oxidation, e.g. loss of electrons
Is reduced (organic) carbon usually ‘hard or squishy’? What does this mean for their fossil potential?
Usually squishy, can enter fossil record or become coal (only plants)
Is oxidised (inorganic) carbon usually ‘hard or squishy’?
hard
Define decay.
The consumption of organic matter by fungi and microbes
What process other than respiration balances out production of (reduced) organic carbon by photosynthesis?
Decay
Describe the process of the carbon cycle within the oceans?
- Photosynthesis creates organic matter at the surface
- This sinks and decays back to CO2
- Eventually the carbon is recycled back to the surface
What is the approximate duration of the ocean carbon cycle?
About 1000 years
How are small amounts of carbon lost from the ocean carbon cycle?
Incorporated into ocean sediments and rock through the fossil record
Briefly - what is the long term carbon cycle?
A process in which some reduced carbon does not decay and quickly return its carbon and oxygen to the atmosphere - instead it is stored long term
What are some long term carbon sinks?
Organic C burial, silicate weathering, CaCO3 burial
Why is removing carbon suggested to be the reason for current ‘ice age’? How?
Because there’s no evidence for increased volcanism on the long term scale to be adding more CO2.
Silicate weathering increase is suggested.
What is the suggested reason that silicate weathering rates have increased
More exposed rock on the move (increased mountainous terrain at the moment)
Why do flat rocks weather slower than mountainous terrain?
Weathered only by rain, angled rocks have runoff sediment, rockfall, frostcreep, and downslope movement
What caused the Himalayan crunch?
India’s movement northward from Gondwana (relatively quickly)
