carbon and water cycles

• Evaporation from the leaves of plants is called 'transpiration'.
• (1) The water cycle;

  • Energy from the sun comes down and causes some of the water to evaporate.
• (2) The water cycle;

  • As all of the water vapour accumulates in the sky, it will start to condense into clouds which can then be blown from one region to another.
• (3) The water cycle;

  • At some point, the water will fall back to earth in the form of rain - this is called 'precipitation'.

  This means that the water can be taken up by plants, seep into the soil or flow into the rivers, so the cycle can repeat again.
• Carbon can be split into 5 different stores;

  • In the air, where it is carbon dioxide.
  • In plants, where it is locked up in biological molecules.
  • In the soil, where it contains lots of bacteria and other microorganisms.
  • In fossil fuels which are underground.
  • In animals, where it is locked up in biological molecules.
• The carbon cycle - photosynthesis;

  • Green plants and algae take in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into biological molecules such as glucose.

  The carbon locked inside them can then do two things;

  • Passed into the atmosphere by respiration.
  • Passed onto animals that eat the plants (the animals themselves can then respire to release carbon dioxide).
• The carbon cycle - aerobic decay;

  • When these plants and animals die, the organisms could be decayed by microorganisms that live in the warm, moist, and aerobic conditions of the soil.

  This will break them into smaller and smaller pieces until all of the carbon has been released as carbon dioxide during 'microbial respiration'.
• The carbon cycle -anaerobic decay;

  • If organisms decay in anaerobic conditions (without oxygen), they may be slowly converted into fossil fuels like oil, natural gas, or coal.

  All of these fossil fuels can then be burned by humans to release carbon dioxide again.