The Carbon Cycle

1. The Carbon Cycle By: Matt Waldman

2. Carbon • 4th most abundant element • “Building Block” of life. • Is the anchor of all organic substances • Found in all living things, atmosphere, and sediment on the ocean floor.

3. The Carbon Cycle http://www.eo.ucar.edu/kids/green/images/carboncycle_sm.jpg

4. The Carbon Cycle http://www.kidsgeo.com/images/carbon-cycle.gif

5. categories • Geological- large time scale carbon cycle. (millions of years) • Biological/physical- shorter time scale carbon cycle. (days to thousands of years)

6. Geological Carbon Cycle • Through a process called weathering, carbonic acid has slowly combined with magnesium and calcium to create insoluble carbonates. • The cycle continues by drawing the carbonates into the mantle by subduction. • The carbon is returned to the atmosphere through volcanic eruption

7. Photosynthesis • Plants absorb carbon out of the atmosphere. Create Carbohydrates. • Animals burn these “carbs” through respiration. • Respiration turns them back into CO2 which is released back into the atmosphere. • This cycle is 1,000 time more effective than the Geological. http://grapevine.net.au/~grunwald/une/KLAs/science/irrigation-photosynthesis.gif

8. Cycle Amounts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/CarbonCycle/carbon_cycle4.php

9. Carbon Amounts • Carbon= .04% of atmosphere • 1,900 gigatons of Carbon in Biosphere. • 36,000 gigatons of Carbon in the ocean. • 60,000,000 gigatons of Carbon in sedimentary rock • 4,000 gigatons of Carbon in fossil fuel deposits

10. Fire • Eats away at biomass and vegetation to produce CO2 into the atmosphere. • The biomass that the fire burned is killed and eventually decomposes creating more CO2 . http://www.nmsu.edu/~safety/images/fire_meaney.gif

11. Human Role • Fossil Fuel Burning and Deforestation. • When we burn fossil fuels, we move carbon more rapidly than the natural cycle allows for. Carbon concentrations increase. • Deforestation is taking the carbon from living plants and trees and sending it back into the atmosphere http://library.thinkquest.org/17531/fossiltitle.jpg

12. Human Role • “The result is that humans are adding ever-increasing amounts of extra carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Because of this, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are higher today than they have been over the last half-million years or longer.” (NASA)

13. Human Role • “In the 1990’s, deforestation and other changes in land use caused 1-2 petagrams (1-2 billion metric tons) of carbon to flow from the biota to the atmosphere annually.” (Encyclopedia of the Earth) • Equilibrium between carbon in the atmosphere has been disrupted by fossil fuels burning. (2 petagrams greater from atmosphere to ocean)

14. Works Cited • “The Carbon Cycle” NASA. Earth Observatory. Nov. 16, 2008 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/CarbonCycle/ • Pidwirny, M. (2006). "The Carbon Cycle". Fundamentals of Physical Geography, 2nd Edition. Date Viewed. http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/9r.html • Pidwirny, Michael (Lead Author); Jay Gulledge (Topic Editor). 2008. "Carbon cycle." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). Dec. 12, 2006 <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Carbon_cycle> • Stern, Paul C. “Human Interaction with the Carbon Cycle.” National Research Council. Nov. 5, 2001. http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/Library/0309084202.pdf