Carbon Cycle

Question 1

How do living organisms obtain carbon in the environment?

Answer 1

Plants use carbon dioxide to make sugars during photosynthesis, and then animals feed on plants to access that carbon in the sugars and starches.

Question 2

How can carbon be released back into the atmosphere?

Answer 2

When plants and animals respire, they use oxygen to release the energy from the sugars and produce carbon dioxide as a waste product. That carbon dioxide is breathed out and released back into the air.

Question 3

What happens to carbon dioxide when organisms die?

Answer 3

When organisms die, decomposers break down their bodies, and carbon is released into the air as well as to the soil

Question 4

How can human activities increase carbon emissions?

Answer 4

Fossilization of dead plants and animals can also occur in specific conditions. Carbon can be stored in fossil fuels. Human activities such as the burning of these fossil fuels add to the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, by releasing the carbon that was stored in these for millions of years.

Question 5

Carbon can only be absorbed in the environment by?

Answer 5

Photosynthesis

Question 6

How does combustion affect carbon emissions?

Answer 6

Combustion accelerates carbon emissions as it is being used faster than it can be created.

Question 7

What is the effect of cutting down large areas of forest on carbon levels?

Answer 7

Cutting down large areas of forest further exacerbates the issue, as the reduction in the number of trees, leads to less carbon being removed from the air and increased rates of accumulation. Decomposition of dead trees also increases the decomposer population and respiration rates, resulting in the significant accumulation of co2.

Question 8

How does carbon contribute to global warming?

Answer 8

It intensifies the greenhouse effect