all of carbon cycle Flashcards
(82 cards)
1
Q
What is the carbon cycle?
A
a process by which carbon is cycled between the atmosphere, land, water, and organisms
2
Q
What type of system is the CC?
A
closed
3
Q
What is a carbon store?
A
a place where carbon is accumulated and stored
4
Q
What is a carbon flux?
A
transfer of carbon from one store to another
5
Q
What are the four carbon stores?
A
atmosphere
hydrosphere
biosphere
lithosphere
6
Q
What is anthropogenic activity?
A
activity that is associated with human responsibility
7
Q
What are examples of the fast carbon cycle?
A
photosynthesis
respiration
volcanic outgassing
8
Q
What are examples of the slow carbon cycle?
A
weathering and erosion
sedimentation and fossilisation
9
Q
What are key processes in the carbon cycle?
A
weathering
decomposition
transportation
sedimentation
10
Q
What is weathering?
A
the chemical and physical processes that break down rock at Earth’s surface
11
Q
What is decomposition?
A
Organisms die and decompose, which returns the CO2 back into the atmosphere
12
Q
What is transportation?
A
the movement of sediment from one place to another
13
Q
What is sedimentation?
A
the process in which soil particles and decaying organic matter accumulate in layers , contributing to the formation of sedimentary rock
14
Q
What is sequestration?
A
the natural storage of carbon due to physical or biological processes
15
Q
What is volcanic outgassing?
A
the release of gases into the atmosphere during volcanic eruptions - contains C02
16
Q
What is thermohaline circulation?
A
movement of water due to the difference in temperatures and densities
17
Q
What are the changes in the the thermohaline circulation?
A
- Warm water cools at the poles
- Cooler water contains higher concentration of CO2
18
Q
What are carbon cycle pumps?
A
- the processes operating in oceans to circulate and store carbon
- there are three sorts: biological, carbonate and physical
19
Q
What is the biological pump?
A
- Phytoplankton on the surface take up the sunlight to photosynthesise with
- This starts the food chain , as they are eaten other animals absorb the C02 they had
- C02 is released back into the atmosphere and the ocean - most being recycled to the surface
- 0.1% of the C02 falls to the bottom as the phytoplankton die, then stored at bottom of ocean
20
Q
What is the carbonate pump?
A
- Organisms use calcium carbonate as a way to make their shells and skeletons stronger
- When these organisms die, these shells may dissolve in the water and be held as a store
- Or they may fall to the bottom of the ocean as a start of sedimentary rock formation
21
Q
What is the physical pump?
A
- Colder waters hold more C02 (concentration is 10% higher in cold water)
- warmer water releases C02 to the atmosphere , whilst colder water absorbs C02
- Thermohaline circulation moves water from warmer areas to colder areas where it can store 50% more C02
22
Q
How much terrestrial carbon does the Amazon sequester?
A
17%
23
Q
What is terrestrial sequestration?
A
Use of plants to capture CO2 from the atmosphere and store it as carbon in the stems and roots of plants as well as the soil
24
Q
What are diurnal fluxes?
A
- During the day the fluxes are positive from the atmosphere to the ecosystem (sun for photosynthesis)
- During the night they are negative, loss from ecosystem to the atmosphere
25
What are seasonal fluxes?
- Winter means less plants are growing therefore there is more atmospheric C02
- Summer and spring allows for plants to grow therefore less atmospheric C02
26
What is the greenhouse effect?
- Radiation from the sun to the atmosphere
- 31% reflected by the clouds, 69% absorbed
- Of the 69%, 69% is re-radiated to space as long wave radiation
- However this radiation can be trapped by the greenhouse gases acting as a belt around the earth, stopping the radiation from escaping
- therefore warming the earth
27
What is positive feedback (global temperatures)?
Global warming causes ice to melt, this releases gases that were stored under the ice - these can contribute to the greenhouse effect which causes global warming
28
What are eight factors that affect how much energy a country consumes?
- standard of living
- climate
- cost
- environmental policies
- public perceptions
- economic development
- availability
- technology
29
How does standard of living affect energy consumption?
If people would be able to afford the cost of using the energy, they would most often use it
30
How does the climate affect energy consumption?
May use more energy in colder climates as they need more energy to heat homes
31
How does cost affect energy consumption?
The cost of exploitation , processing (turning into usable energy) and the cost of delivering
32
How does the environmental priorities affect energy consumption?
May use less non-renewable energy due to the byproducts and therefore may find other, less energy intense ways
33
How does public perceptions affect energy consumption?
Just Stop Oil and other protestors may intervene with the consumption of energy
34
How does economic development affect energy consumption?
The costs of energy may be perceived as unaffordable in 1 country but fair in another
35
How does availibility affect energy consumption?
If a country has access to resources and is able to extract
36
How does technology affect energy consumption?
having the right tools to extract and then deliver the energy
37
How much bigger is the USA's energy consumption than France?
10x
38
How much of the USA's energy is non-renewables?
82%
39
How much of the France's energy is non-renewables?
50%
40
How much of the USA's energy is renewables?
10%
41
How much of the France's energy is renewables?
9%
42
How much of the USA's energy is nuclear?
8%
43
How much of the France's energy is nuclear?
41%
44
How much of the USA's energy is imported?
15%
45
How much of the France's energy is imported?
46%
46
What country is the 2nd largest producer of gas?
Russia
47
Where did 3 out of 4 of Russia's gas pipelines go through?
Ukraine
48
What happened to the Russian gas pipelines that went through Ukraine?
they were destroyed
49
When did the Canadian Tar sands start commercial use?
1967
50
How much do the Canadians tar sands produce towards Canada's oil output?
40%
51
Why do the Canadian tar sands have large environmental impacts
requires strip mining
52
Why are the Canadian Tar sands vulnerable to oil price fluctuations?
extraction is expensive
53
How much did USA Shale Gas contribute to gas supply in 2000?
1%
54
How much did USA Shale Gas contribute to gas supply in 2015?
25%
55
What does fracking do?
releases oil and gas thats otherwise hard to get to
56
What are the environmental problems with fracking?
- releases airborne pollutants
- can contaminate groundwater
- fraccidents = explosions and deaths
57
When were the Brazilian Deepwater Oil reserves discovered?
2006
58
Where were the Brazilian Deepwater Oil reserves discovered?
200km offshore
59
Why is the Brazilian Deepwater Oil reserves risky?
- risky drilling so far offshore
- hazardous access by ship due to rough seas
- reservoirs contain huge amounts of toxic, flammable gases
60
What is an example of a Brazilian Deepwater Oil rig exploding?
Deepwater Horizon in Mexico, 2010
61
What are biofuels?
Fuel derived from crops that can be converted into forms of ethanol and used as fuel
62
What are the benefits to Brazilian Biofuels?
- 90% of new vehicles can be fuelled by sugar canes turned into ethanol
- reduction of CO2 emissions
63
What are the costs of Brazilian biofuels?
- deforestation in order to make sense for sugar cane farms or cattle, could reverse effects of using biofuels
- Growing crops for non-food purposes whilst there is an increasingly hungry world
64
What is carbon capture?
capturing the C02 that is released when burning fossil fuels and storing it underground
65
What are the benefits of carbon capture?
- Lower emissions as held in a store
- Provision of jobs
66
What are the costs of carbon capture?
- Uncertainty if trapped CO2 stays underground
- Expensive due to complex technology needed
- Risky for the environment and can contaminate groundwater reserves
67
What is nuclear energy?
the potential energy stored in the nucleus of an atom
68
What are the benefits of nuclear energy?
- Does not add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere
- Can generate a lot of energy from a small amount of material
69
What are the costs of nuclear energy?
- Fukushima and Chernobyl events can be very destructive to people and the whole area
- Very toxic radioactive substance with a very long half life
70
What are Hydrogen Fuel Cells?
A combination of hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, heat, and water
71
What are benefits of Hydrogen Fuel Cells?
- Source of heat and electricity
- Power source for electrical vehicles
- Produces no C02
72
What are the costs of Hydrogen Fuel Cells?
- Hydrogen is never found by itself so needs to be split up from other compounds
- Expensive for the technology and split hydrogen up
73
Why are energy importers at risk?
- Possible natural disasters that disrupt the flow of oil
- Military and civil unrest getting in the way and causing conflicts (e.g pipelines from Russia)
74
What are ways to help regulate atmospheric CO2?
- Afforestation
- Reduce Carbon emissions
- Carbon tax
- Reduce effects of CC (can lead to melting of frozen carbon stores)
75
What is afforestation?
planting trees in new areas
76
What is reforestation?
planting trees to replace lost forestland
77
What is ocean acidification?
Decreasing pH of ocean waters due to absorption of excess atmospheric CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels
78
What can ocean acidification lead to?
- coral bleaching
- reefs not being able to grow
79
What is the enhanced greenhouse effects?
Rising global temperatures due to greenhouse gases being put into the atmosphere because of human activities
80
What does the Kuznet's Curve show?
1 - As countries start to develop, there is a lot of environmental degradation due to prioritising development
2 - Countries get to a point where they hit peak environmental degradation as they develop more and become a developed country
3 - From this point, more ideas and awareness to environment is shown and new ways of producing energy and sustainable living becomes more abundant in developed countries
81
What are the global warming effects on carbon cycle?
- Stored Carbon for thousands of years released due to melting of ice caps
- Forest fires and wildfires release carbon that is stored by soil and trees
- Increased ocean temperatures means less carbon can be stores (cooler waters store 50% more)
82
How does Climate Change effect the Amazon?
- Amazon is a large store of carbon due to all the trees taking in the carbon to photosynthesise
- Deforestation has caused for evapotranspiration rates to decrease
- With global temperatures warming anyway, there has been an increase in wildfires, which release co2 back to atmosphere again
