Carbon Cycle Flashcards
(81 cards)
What is a store/reservoir?
place where carbon is held
What are carbon fluxes?
flows of movement between carbon stores which can operate at local or global scales
What is used to measure carbon?
petagrams (pg) / gigatonnes (gt)
- one petagram equal to 1 trillion kg
What are the two types of carbon?
- geological carbon (formed when sedimentary rocks are created e.g. Himalayas is one of the largest carbon stores, started off as oceanic sediment, now weathering and returning to oceans)
- biological carbon - derived from dead organisms eg coal and shale
Why is carbon important?
vital in joining elements to form compounds necessary for life e.g. starches, these forms of carbon account for half of the total dry mass of living things
What is a carbon source and sink?
sources add carbon to the atmosphere e.g. fossil fuels, respiration
sinks remove carbon from the atmosphere e.g. photosynthesis, ocean uptake
(- reservoirs can be either of these)
What happens if carbon sources equal sinks?
the carbon cycle is in equilibrium (in a negative feedback system)
What is the difference between positive and negative feedback systems?
- negative feedback systems maintain a stable state by preventing the system moving beyond thresholds - any change is cancelled out so equilibrium is maintained
- positive feedback systems occur when sources and sinks are unequal to each other so are not in equilibrium - a change in one component causes changes in others
What are the four key processes involved in the carbon cycle?
- photosynthesis
- respiration
- decomposition
- combustion
What happens in photosynthesis?
- process by which plants absorb light energy using chlorophyll in the leaves
- absorbed energy converts CO2 in the air and water in the soil into glucose
- some glucose used in respiration (rest used as starch)
What happens in respiration?
- chemical process where glucose is converted into energy used for growth and repair, movement and maintenance of body temperature
- CO2 is returned to atmosphere, mostly through exhaled air
What happens in decomposition?
- organisms die and are consumed by decomposers e.g. bacteria, fungi and earthworms
- during this time, carbon is returned from their bodies to the atmosphere as CO2, some material passes into the soil where it may be stored for hundreds of years
What happens in combustion?
- organic material containing carbon is burned in the presence of oxygen
- it is converted into energy, CO2 and water
- this CO2 is released into the atmosphere, returning carbon that may have been stored for millions of years
What does sequestered mean in terms of carbon?
naturally stored in physical or biological processes
Where are the locations of the world’s largest carbon stores?
- central Africa
- Philippines
What are the long term carbon stores?
- crustal/terrestrial/geological carbon store - 100,000,000 pg stored as sedimentary rocks with very slow cycling over thousands of years
- oceanic carbon store - 38,000 pg of dissolved carbon stored at great depths
- atmospheric carbon store - 560 pg stored as greenhouse gases with lifetime up to 100 years
What are the short term carbon stores?
- terrestrial soil store - 1,500 pg from plant materials, microorganisms break down organic matter into CO2 - takes days in hot climate, decades in colder
- oceanic surface store - 1,000 pg through CO2 dissolving into the water and plankton
- terrestrial ecosystems - store 560 pg of carbon organically, especially in trees, rapid exchange with atmosphere of seconds/minutes
What are the processes in the geological carbon cycle?
- physical/chemical/biological weathering of rocks in situ
- decomposition of plant/animal particles
- transportation - rivers carry particles to the ocean
- sedimentation occurs as particles accumulate
- metamorphosis occurs as the layering and burial of sediment causes pressure to build such that the deeper sediments are changed into rocks
How much carbon moves through the cycle (between rocks, soil, ocean and atmosphere) annually?
10-100 million metric tonnes
How is crude oil formed?
- remains of plants may form peat and then coal which may take 10-100s million years to form
- high temperature and pressure creates anthracite which has a high energy potential
- anaerobic reactions convert 90% of this organic carbon to liquid which then moves into other rock layers where it becomes trapped
- crude oil is 85% carbon
How is limestone formed?
- skeletons of marine creatures which had extracted carbon from seawater and phytoplankton
- their remains accumulate on the sea floor and cement and compact into calcium carbonate in limestone
How much CO2 does volcanic activity release annually?
300 million tonnes of CO2
How do volcanoes release carbon?
- volcanoes degas through the main vent of the volcano/hot spot
- degassing also occurs at divergent plate margins
- at convergent margins carbon is recycled as carbonate rocks are dragged into the upper mantle
Do you know the rock cycle?
- igneous rock
- uplift to surface
- weathering
- transport and deposition
- sedimentation
- compaction
- sedimentary rock
- burial, high temp and pressure
- metamorphic
- melting to magma
- crystallisation of magma
- igneous rock