carbon cycles & water cycles are affected by human activity

Cards (6)

  • what has growing demand for food, fuel and other resources led to?
    • deforestation
    • afforestation
    • conversion of grasslands
  • oceans acidification is increasing due to fossil fuel combustion
  • ocean acidification is a huge problem as oceans are a huge carbon sink, increased acidity means more carbonic acid dissolves in calcium carbonate negativly affecting marine life and some creatures need it to make shells e.g. phytoplankton
  • coral reefs also rely on calcium carbonate and a reduction will see them begin to dissolve and lead to permanent damage going past the critical threshold
  • humans have influenced climate change by adding to the greenhouse effect by burning more fossil fuels
  • this leads to more drought and death of trees releasing more carbon, a case study for this is the Amazon drought events:
    • severe drought between 2005 and 2010
    • plants and animals used to moist conditions died
    • photosynthesis slowed down = less carbon taken out atmosphere
    • wildfires released more carbon dioxide