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Before we discuss the cycle, there are a few things you need to know about carbon:
The Earth has a finite amount of carbon. Living things are made up of carbon (often they are described as being carbon-based) and need carbon to survive. Carbon is also found in non-living things such as rocks, animal shells, the atmosphereand oceans. Carbon found in something living is called organic carbon. Carbon found in something non-living is called inorganic carbon. Carbon dioxide is an important gas in our atmosphere. It prevents heat from escaping and, in doing so, warms up the Earths atmosphere. In a similar way to the glass of a greenhouse, it traps the heat from escaping and, for this reason, it is called a greenhouse gas.
The Carbon Cycle All living things are made of carbon. Carbon is also a part of the ocean, air, and even rocks. Because the Earth is a dynamic place, carbon does not stay still. It is on the move! In the atmosphere, carbon is attached to some oxygen in a gas called carbon dioxide. Plants use carbon dioxide and sunlight to make their own food and grow. The carbon becomes part of the plant. Plants that die and are buried may turn into fossil fuels made of carbon like coal and oil over millions of years. When humans burn fossil fuels, most of the carbon quickly enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and traps heat in the atmosphere. Without it and other greenhouse gases, Earth would be a frozen world. But humans have
burned so much fuel that there is about 30% more carbon dioxide in the air today than there was about 150 years ago, and Earth is becoming a warmer place. In fact, ice cores show us that there is now more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than there has been in the last 420,000 years.
organisms and even end in the same place where it began. Herein lies the fascination of the carbon cycle; the same atoms can be recycled for millennia!
of plants and animals. It is their job to consume both waste products and dead matter, during which they also return carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by respiration. Decomposers not only play a key role in the carbon cycle, but also break down, remove, and recycle what might be called nature's garbage. Weathering of rocks. Not all carbon atoms are always moving somewhere in the carbon cycle. Often, many become trapped in limerock, a type of stone formed on the ocean floor by the shells of marine plankton. Sometimes after millions of years, the waters recede and the limerock is eventually exposed to the elements. When limerock is exposed to the natural process of weathering, it slowly releases the carbon atoms it contains, and they become an active part of the carbon cycle once again Human-caused increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In recent history, humans have added to the carbon cycle by burning fossil fuels. Ever since the rapid growth of the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century when people first harnessed steam to power their engines, human beings have been burning carboncontaining fuels like coal and oil (called fossil fuels) for artificial power. This constant burning produces massive amounts of carbon dioxide, which are released into Earth's atmosphere. Over the last 150 years, the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas has released some 270 billion tons (245 billion metric tons) of carbon into the air in the form of carbon dioxide. Luckily, more than half of the carbon dioxide emitted by the burning of fossil fuels is absorbed by the oceans, by plants, and by soils. Regardless, scientists feel fossil fuel consumption could be an example of a human activity that affects and possibly alters the natural processes (photosynthesis, respiration, decomposition) that nature had previously kept in balance. Many scientists believe that carbon dioxide is a "greenhouse gas." This means that it traps heat and prevents it from escaping from Earth. As a result, this trapped gas leads to a global temperature rise, a natural phenomenon known as the greenhouse effect, which can have disastrous effects on Earth's environment
Carbon is mostly cycled through the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. There are processes by which it is added to the atmosphere and processes by which it is removed. This cycling of carbon via carbon dioxide is known as the carbon cycle. One simple representation of the carbon cycle is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2 One representation of the carbon cycle. Organic carbon means carbon bound up in living organisms and in their waste products. Processes that add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere
In diagrams of the carbon cycle, up arrows are used to represent processes that add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. They include chemical processes by which living organisms obtain their energy, such as:
Cellular respiration: glucose + oxygen carbon dioxide + water + energy Fermentation: glucose carbon dioxide + alcohol + energy (This process is not directly listed in Figure 2)
Photosynthesis: carbon dioxide + water + energy glucose + oxygen Formation of shells, corals, stalactites and stalagmites etc. (This process is not listed in Figure 2)
It may take over a hundred years for a particular carbon atom to enter the atmosphere, then be absorbed by a plant and converted into a sugar or other substance, then be eaten by animals and converted to a new substance, and eventually eaten by you in a great roast dinner! Some carbon atoms are taken 'out of the loop' for thousands of years, however, by being converted to fossil fuels such as coal and oil.
Advantages- It helps in the transfer of energy which is mostly in the form of Carbon compounds. Also it provides in the formation of new carboncompounds