Carbon plus energy from the sun are the fundamentals for life on earth. How carbon moves between the atmosphere and oceans and on land among the plants, animals and microbes is the unique combination of physics and biology; elegant in its simplicity of principle and fascinating in its complexity in nature.
Here is the carbon cycle from the view of a carbon atom innocently attached to two oxygen atoms as a molecule of carbon dioxide:
For eons the atom floats as part of a gas in the atmosphere moving on the currents generated by the energy from the sun. By chance the carbon dioxide molecule passes close enough to the ground to move through a stomata into a leaf on the highest branch of a forest tree. The molecule is sucked into
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Instead it transfers among the bacteria and is eventually consumed by a mosquito larvae that emerges as an adult that is eaten by a flycatcher that defecates it in a batch of uric acid to the soil where a whole new set of decomposer organisms get to work.
Through these cycles within cycles, the carbon atom stays out of the atmosphere, moving among the myriad of organisms that make up the biosphere.
It might do this for hundreds of years before returning to where the sequence began as a carbon dioxide molecule. It might equally become fixed into carbon compounds in soil and stay there for thousands of years or become sediment and stay buried for eons.
The earth can be viewed as a series of carbon pools of different sizes and fluxes of different rates. These transfers of carbon have both created the opportunity for evolution and been modified by the biological complexity that evolution has produced.
Carbon atoms in carbon dioxide molecules also enter the oceans to be used by countless billions of microscopic diatoms, plankton and shellfish. Some of this carbon sinks to the sediment eventually to form carbonate
The Carbon Cycle is a process necessary to all life forms as carbon is used for photosynthesis, cellular respiration, and is found in all living organisms. This process occurs naturally from cellular respiration, decomposition, and volcanic eruptions. However from burning fossil fuels and cutting down trees at a rapid pace carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere at an artificial rate. The overabundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide is causing for global warming. This global warming is causing extreme havoc to the Earth and all of its life forms. However this damage, although cannot be reversed, can be changed for the better.
It starts in the atmosphere, then moves, gets used, and placed into multiple different reservoirs. Nature causes the carbon to move through animals and plants. The fast carbon cycle is measured within a lifespan. It runs through the atmosphere, plants, animals, and soil. The slow carbon takes eons for carbon to move from the reservoirs, consisting of the surface ocean, deep ocean, and fossil fuels.“...takes between 100-200 million years to move” (Riebeeck p.2). Carbon that is stored into abiotic and biotic organisms, creates matter. Without carbon, fossil fuels wouldn’t be created (or anything alive, for that matter.) “Carbon is the backbone of life” (Riebeeck p.1). The carbon cycle somewhat regulates the concentration of carbon in one area by having multiple
What is the carbon cycle? “Sequence of processes through which carbon compounds move from one carbon reservoir or sink (such as forests and oceans) to another (such as atmosphere) and back. Since more carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels and less
The Earth is thought to be a self regulating system, and considered a living organism that optimizes conditions of life for itself. This system as a whole has homeostatic mechanisms that are responsible for maintaining a physical and chemical environment that is fit for life on the planet. Processes such as the interaction of living forms such as microorganisms with inorganic elements are essential for sustaining conditions of life. These processes establish a global control system that is in charge of many different variables such as: controlling the global temperature, atmospheric content, and the ocean salinity.
2. Fill in the blank: This movement of inorganic carbon the carbon dioxide found in the atmosphere to organic molecules has a significant impact on
The carbon cycle deals with the interaction of carbon between living organisms and the nonliving environment. This cycle is a process through which all carbon rotates. The main result of the carbon cycle is to serve as a great natural "recycler" of carbon atoms.
The release of carbon, however, was released in four phases. First, there was a large release of carbon over the initial 10 years, then it slowed down the next seven years, after the seven years, the emissions resumed, until stopping again recently. The author ends the article hinting that some sort of feedback loop is happening that favors certain organisms that consume carbon in the soil.
This research paper describes the most common theories about the origin of life and evolution on earth. All of the theories have originated from the thought of something evolving, for example the Primordial Soup Hypothesis, which suggests that life was created when an ocean of chemicals from the atmosphere and a form of energy created amino acids, which then have evolved into the different species. A chemist named Stanley Miller tested the Primordial Soup Hypothesis by sending an electrical charge through a flask with a solution that consisted of methane, ammonia, and hydrogen, this created amino acids. Another example is the Deep Sea Vent Hypothesis, which suggests that simple metabolic reactions emerged from seafloor hot springs enabling the evolution of non living organisms to become living. A group of geochemists claim that a simple sulfur-containing
The Carbon cycle starts when the carbon first enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide from respiration and combustion. Then the carbon dioxide is absorbed by producers like plants and made into carbohydrates in photosynthesis. Animals and humans will eat the plants full of carbohydrates. Most of the carbon they consume is exhaled as carbon dioxide formed during respiration and once the time comes, the animals, plants, and humans will die. One important part of the carbon cycle is when dead organisms will go through decomposition but the carbon in the body will return to the atmosphere. In the off case the decomposition is blocked, the plants and animals may be used as fossil fuels in the future for combustion.
The carbon cycle on Earth is essentially how all organisms maintain life on our planet. According to the article “The Carbon Cycle and The Earth’s Climate,” carbon is stored inside our Earth and is released in our atmosphere, plants then combine this element with sunlight and water to go through the process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis allows plants to form carbohydrates that store energy and this energy is later used to carry out life functions. Photosynthesis is also responsible for other organisms to carry out their life functions as well because the byproduct it produces is oxygen. The carbon cycle is not only accountable for making byproducts that organisms need to live, it is also responsible for maintaining the climate on the planet. CO2 is a greenhouse gas that traps infrared radiation heat in our atmosphere, it maintains temperatures on Earth so that it never gets too cold or too hot for organisms to maintain life (Columbia University). The Carbon Cycle is responsible for maintaining temperatures on our planet but it does need help from living organisms to aid with the process. According to the article “What are Phytoplankton,” organisms such as Phytoplankton are responsible for the transfer of carbon dioxide from our atmosphere to our oceans, Phytoplankton take CO2 from the atmosphere absorb it and either get eaten by other organisms or fall to the ocean floor. This process takes greenhouse gasses from our atmosphere and puts it in the depths of our
However; life in the ocean may be on the verge of change due primarily to excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
This article relates to science because it discusses bacteria that helps trap carbon, keep it out of the atmosphere, and use it to benefit the ocean. Our oceans are still very unexplored and everyday we can learn more and more about the creatures that thrive in the waters of our world’s oceans. “Nitrospinae bacteria, which use the nitrogen compound nitrite to “fix” inorganic carbon dioxide into sugars and other compounds for food and reproduction, are responsible for 15 to 45 percent of such carbon fixation in the western North Atlantic Ocean, researchers report in the Nov. 24 Science. If these microbes are present in similar abundances around the world — and some data suggest that the bacteria are — those rates may be global, the team
There are lots of natural processes constantly happening all around us, these processes are often linked by passing one type of atom to the next process which passes the same atom to the next one and so on. This ‘passing of the atom’ along a chain of processes is called a cycle, the series of processes in which the carbon atom goes through is called the carbon cycle. Each Carbon is the fourth most affluent element in the universe and is an important part of most molecules that make up most of the world’s natural resources and organic matter, which is why the carbon cycle is one of the most important cycles on earth. Through-out the cycle, carbon can become several different forms such as sugar, oil, diamond and marble. Processes such as photosynthesis, combustion and the compression of the earth play key roles in changing, containing and releasing carbon. All the chemical reactions and processes and forms carbon creates are part of the carbon cycle, which is one of the most important cycle on earth. The majority of carbon on earth is in the atmosphere the rest is stored in rocks, fossil fuels, oceans, plants and soil. Carbon is constantly being added to the atmosphere, the most common forms being carbon dioxide and methane gas. At the same time it’s being removed by plants on land and in the oceans. Carbon can be stored for hundreds of years in sediment, fossil fuels, rocks and the ocean. The carbon in the atmosphere is almost always a compound called carbon dioxide.
The ocean is the largest part of the carbon cycle, where more than 25% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted each year into the atmosphere is absorbed. CO2 is a greenhouse gas and due to it’s relatively high concentations in the atmosphere it is the biggest contributor to the enhanced greenhouse effect and is responsible for climate change (Biello, 2009). Naturally occurring ocean acidification is being accelerated by an excess of CO2 being absorbed into the oceans, which is due to the increasing atmospheric concentration of CO2 primarily due to the increase of human activities involving the use of carbon based fuels. (Reference). Ocean acidification is the result of CO2 being absorbed into ocean water, which then reacts with the water to produce carbonic acid. The CO2 dissolves into the water in a staged process of equilibrium reactions, where firstly the CO2 is absorbed into the oceans and ultimately synthesised to form carbonic acid H2CO3 as shown in equation 1 below (UWA, 2012).
Trees assume a noteworthy part in the worldwide carbon cycle. They are the biggest area based instrument for expelling carbon dioxide from the air.