B1.6 Waste Materials and the Carbon Cycle Flashcards
What do living things use the materials they need (carbon and nitrogen) for?
Growth and other life processes.
Where do living things get the materials they need (carbon and nitrogen) from?
The environment.
How are the materials living things take returned to the environment?
In the organisms waste products or when the organism dies.
When an organism dies, what breaks it down?
Microorganisms.
Once the organism is broken down, where do the elements the organism contained go?
They are returned to the soil where they can be used by new plants.
What are the best conditions for microorganisms to be active?
Warm, moist conditions with a good oxygen supply.
What is a stable community?
A community in which the materials taken out of the soil and used, are balanced out by those that are put back in. There’s a constant cycle of materials.
What is a use of compost?
Fertiliser, this recycles nutrients back into the soil.
What does the carbon cycle show?
It shows how carbon is constantly recycled (from the air, through food chains, and back into the air again).
How can carbon be removed from the air?
Through photosynthesis of green plants and algae.
In what form is carbon removed from the air.
As carbon dioxide.
What do green plants and algae use the carbon in carbon dioxide for?
To make carbohydrates, fats and proteins.
How is carbon passed along the food chain?
Through animals eating other organisms.
What do animals use carbon for?
To make fats and proteins in their body.
How are compounds returned to the soil?
Detritus feeders and microorganisms break down dead organisms and animal waste which puts compounds back into the soil that can be taken up by plants as nutrients.
