Carbon Cycle and Energy Security Key Terms Flashcards
What is Adaptation?
Making changes to our lifestyle to allow us to live in a changing climate rather than trying to stop the changes.
What is Afforestation?
Planting new trees to increase carbon sinks.
What does Anthropogenic mean?
Human-induced changes on the natural environment.
What is an Atmospheric Carbon Store?
Carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other carbon compounds present in the Earth’s atmosphere, crucial for regulating the Earth’s climate.
What is Biological Sequestration?
The capture and storage of carbon by biological processes, such as photosynthesis.
What is a Biosphere Carbon Store?
All carbon stored in living organisms, including plants, animals, and microorganisms, as well as in dead organic matter.
What is a Carbon Budget?
The balance of the exchanges (incomes and losses) of carbon between carbon reservoirs or between one specific loop of the carbon cycle.
What is Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)?
Technology to capture and store CO2 emissions underground.
What is the Carbon Cycle?
The biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.
What does Carbon Neutral mean?
Achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing emissions with removal or offsetting.
What is Carbon Sequestration?
Capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide.
What is a Carbon Sink?
Natural systems that absorb more carbon than they release.
What is a Carbon Source?
Processes that release carbon into the atmosphere.
What is Carbon Trading?
A market-based system aimed at reducing greenhouse gases.
What is Decomposition?
Breakdown of organic matter, releasing carbon.
What is Deforestation?
The clearing of trees, transforming a forest into cleared land.
What is Diagenesis?
The physical, chemical, and biological processes that transform sediments into sedimentary rock after they are deposited.
What is Energy Security?
The uninterrupted availability of energy sources at an affordable price.
What is the Enhanced Greenhouse Effect?
Additional warming caused by increased concentrations of greenhouse gases due to human activities.
What is the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)?
A climate phenomenon caused by variations in sea surface temperatures and atmospheric pressure in the tropical Pacific Ocean.
What is El Niño?
The warm phase of ENSO, characterized by above-average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.
What is La Niña?
The cooler phase of ENSO, characterized by the cooling of surface ocean waters along the tropical west coast of South America.
What are Fossil Fuels?
Natural fuels formed from the remains of living organisms.
What is a Geological Carbon Store?
Carbon stored in rocks and sediments, including fossil fuels and sedimentary rocks.
