4.3 Flashcards
What is the hydrosphere?
Water environment
What is he biosphere?
All the places where life can be found
What is the lithosphere?
All the places where rocks are found
What is the atmosphere?
Air
What role to autotrophs play in the carbon cycle?
They absorb inorganic carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into organic carbon-based compounds to be eaten by consumers
What happens when carbon dioxide from the air diffuses into water?
It forms an acid (lowers pH)
how do producers obtain carbon dioxide?
Terrestrial plants obtain carbon dioxide by absorbing it from the air.
Aquatic producers obtain carbon dioxide by absorbing it from the water.
How is methane produced?
By specialised microns that are common in wetlands and digestive tracts of mammals
What happens when methane I burned ?
Large amounts of carbon dioxide are released
What is peat?
A type of waterlogged soil that contains large amounts of partially decomposed organic matter.
How is peat formed?
- Dead organisms are covered in water
- The weight of the water forced the air out, creating an anaerobic environment
- Microorganisms that would normally decomposed the dead things die off
- Energy-rich compounds are compressed and preserved
What is peat used for?
A fossil fuel through burning
What are consequences of peat?
Burning peat yields lost of energy however to harvest peat you have to disrupt sensitive wetlands
Burning peat releases carbon dioxide into the environment
How are coal and oil produced?
- Peat is trapped under layers of a non porous sedimentary rock
- Over long periods of time, heat and pressure cause the organic matter to be transformed into energy dense hydrocarbons.
What happens when biomass in burned?
Carbon dioxide gets released into the atmosphere
What are advantages of biofuels?
- You don’t have to disrupt sensitive habitats to mine them
- The carbon dioxide theta r release was just absorbed days ago by the plant making the cycle time shorter
What is limestone?
Is inorganic, the majority of it is made of calcium carbonate
How is limestone produced?
- Marine organisms absorb carbon dioxide from their environment
- Carbon dioxide is transformed into calcium carbonate, which is used to make their shells
- The animals die
- Their shells accumulate on the ocean floor
- Non porous sedimentary rock layers form on top of the shells
- Heat and pressure turn the shells into limestone
What is biosequestration?
The process of removing carbon from the environment and locking it up in a substance for an extended period of time
