Carbon Is A Chemical Element Essential For All Living Things Essay

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 carbon cycle has been significantly altered by extracting and combusting billions of tons of hydrocarbons in fossils that were buried deep in the Earth's crust. In addition, clearing vegetation that stores carbon has also impacted the carbon cycle. Global release of carbon through human activities has increased from 1 billion tons per year in 1940 to 6.5 billion tons per year in 2000. About half of this extra carbon is taken up by plants and the oceans, while the other half remains in the atmosphere.

The carbon cycle is very important to human life because humans cant breathe carbon dioxide for long periods of time. Carbon dioxide is attached to the oxygen and that needs to go away so humans can breathe it properly. The plant cycle relies heavily on the carbon cycle because plants consume the carbon dioxide because the carbon dioxide and photosynthesis (light from the sun) helps their food grow. The plants then lets the oxygen go for animals and humans to breathe. When a plant dies, it gets buried under the surface and slowly turns into fossil fuels. This process of the fossil fuel takes millions of years. But when humans burn the fossil fuels (by using cars and other machinery that uses fossil fuels) it enters the atmosphere as

This is why it is so vital to the survival of the ocean population. Like nitrogen, Carbon is absorbed and dissolved into the surface of the ocean. Tiny marine plants called phytoplankton use photosynthesis to turn much of the carbon dissolved into the ocean into organic matter. Some organisms use it to make the material used for shells and skeletons, calcium carbonate. By using up carbon through chemical and biological processes, there is more allowance for carbon dioxide to enter the water from the atmosphere. The nickname “carbon sink” has been given to the ocean because it absorbs more carbon than it lets out.

1. Fill in the blank: In the carbon cycle, carbon moves from inorganic carbon dioxide to organic molecules and back again in a constant cycle_.

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 Carbon Cycle is an important key to maintaining all the life on earth alive. The Carbon Cycle happens between all living things, so they all play a major role in it. It is the second most abundant element that makes up living things. Carbon affects the atmosphere throughout the years because the carbon has to travel to and from the living things.

Carbon is what all life is based on. Oxygen sustains life. We most certainly would have not lived had our universe not been guested by Carbon and Oxygen. As mentioned on NYU.edu, Carbon is “…a very special element because it plays a dominant role in the chemistry of life”

For the thermonuclear reaction involving carbon that powers some stars, see CNO cycle. For organic chemical ring-shaped structures, see cyclic compounds. This diagram of the fast carbon cycle shows the movement of carbon between land, atmosphere, and oceans in billions of tons per year. Yellow numbers are natural fluxes, red are human contributions, white indicate stored carbon. Note this diagram does not account for volcanic and tectonic activity, which also sequesters and releases carbon. The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth. Carbon is the main component of biological compounds as well as a major component of many minerals such as limestone. Along with the nitrogen cycle and the water cycle, the carbon cycle comprises a sequence of events that are key to make Earth capable of sustaining life. It describes the movement of carbon as it is recycled and reused throughout the biosphere, as well as long-term processes of carbon sequestration to and release from carbon sinks

In the carbon cycle, the key events are the complementary reactions of respiration and photosynthesis. Respiration takes carbohydrates and oxygen and combines them to produce carbon dioxide, water, and energy. Photosynthesis (6CO + 12H O + Light Energy C H O + 6O +6H O) takes carbon dioxide and water and produces carbohydrates and oxygen. The outputs of respiration are the inputs of photosynthesis, and the outputs of photosynthesis are the inputs of respiration. The reactions are also complementary in the way they deal with energy. Photosynthesis takes energy from the sun and stores it in the carbon-carbon bonds of carbohydrates; respiration releases that energy. Both plants and animals carry on respiration, but only plants and other producers can carry on photosynthesis. The chief reservoirs for carbon dioxide are in the oceans and in rock. Carbon dioxide dissolves readily in water. Once there, it may precipitate as a solid rock known as calcium carbonate. Corals and algae encourage this reaction and build up limestone reefs in the process. On land and in the water, plants take up carbon dioxide and convert it into carbohydrates through photosynthesis. This carbon in the plants now has 3 possible endings. It can be returned to the atmosphere by the plant through respiration; it can be eaten by an animal, or it can be present in the plant when the plant dies. Animals obtain all their carbon in their food, and, thus, all carbon

Carbon dioxide which is given off as a byproduct of cellular respiration, carbon monoxide given off from burning gas for energy, methane given off by livestock and other sources, and chlorofluorocarbons given off by industrial products and synthetics products all are carbon containing molecules which contribute to the greenhouse effect. As more excess carbon is given off, the ozone layer becomes more thin, letting in more of the sun's radiation. Carbon also helps “insulate” the Earth's atmosphere, trapping heat and reflects the sun's energy back to the earth, causing it to warm; much like a real

Step 1 Cellular respiration and combustion: Due to the processes that are burning and breathing, carbon enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

Coal is an organic carbon rock derived from ancient lithified dead trees. In this state it is part of the geochemical cycle and the carbon is stored in the rock reservoir. CO_2 (g) is an atmospheric greenhouse gas with a molecular structure including more than 2 atoms, allowing it to absorb and re-emit infrared radiation though vibration of the chemical bonds holding the molecules together (Figure 5.6, BK1, pg 86).