Introduction to the Carbon Cycle

• What are the cycles apart of the big bio-geo-chemical cycle?


  -water cycle

  -nitrogen cycle

  -carbon cycle
• Carbon


  found in all living things

  often paired to other elements
• Carbon can be bonded with...


  oxygen-> carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide

  calcium-> calcium carbonate (limestone)

  hydrogen-> carbonic acid (acid rain)
• Carbon cycle is a closed system


  -the amount of carbon on earth can not be increased or decreased

  -but it does move around the earth (changing state)
• Spheres containing carbon


  Atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere
• Fluxes


  The direction and rate of flow between and within the spheres
• dynamic equilibrium


  Result of diffusion where there is continuous movement of particles but no overall change in concentration
• What do we call stores in the spheres?

  pools, stocks or reservoirs
• Atmosphere


  carbon mainly stored as carbon dioxide

  -key contributor to the natural greenhouse effect
• Biosphere


  carbon mainly stored as plants and animals, phytoplankton

  -plants photosynthesis draws carbon out of the atmosphere
• Hydrosphere


  carbon mainly stored in the ocean, dissolved

  -used by invertebrates and phytoplankton for their shells
• Lithosphere


  carbon stored as organic material turning to rock

  -mostly stored as limestone but also in peat, coal and oil
• Types of fluxes


  -eruption of gases

  -Burial of sediment

  -Weathering and erosion

  -Diffusion

  -Photosynthesis

  -Respiration
• biotic fluxes in the carbon cycle

  photosynthesis and respiration
• abiotic fluxes in the carbon cycle


  Eruption of gases, burial of sediment, weathering and erosion, and diffusion