Biological Carbon
- Created by: eviedeehan
- Created on: 12-03-24 18:20
View mindmap
- Biological Carbon
- Carbon in the food chain
- terrestrial primary producers make own energy through photosynthesis - sequester CO2
- all living organisms respire and release CO2 into the atmosphere
- consumers eat others - primary consumers eat plants such as bugs and herbivores -return the carbon from producers back to the atmosphere when they respire
- decomposers - consume dead organic matter, return C to the atmosphere through respiration
- ocean act as a biological carbon pump - sequestration by phytoplankton
- they take CO2 out of atmosphere through photosynthesis, transforms the C in the atmosphere into biological carbon - consumers eat it and respire and turn some C back to atmosphere
- they die and sink to the ocean floor. these organisms accumulate as sediment - transformed to sedimentary rocks or decomposed by bacteria
- carbon pump - carbon enters and moves around the ocean - atmospheric levels of CO2 would be significantly higher without oceans
- thermohaline circulation - global movements of water - cold winks and warm rises e.g UK warmth due to warm caribbean water
- slight changes in temp impact that thermohaline and carbonate pump
- Dead organic matter - different landscapes
- soils - contain biological carbon, returned to atmosphere by decomposers - time depends on temperature and climate
- mangroves - coastline, sequester 1.5 million tonnes of carbon per hectare per year
- humus, litter and peat in anaerobic soils - contain 10% C - biological breakdown takes longer as biological decomposers cannot survive without O2
- tundra soils - permanently low temp, ancient carbon and carbon trapped in permafrost - only microbe activity when it thaws
- Carbon in the food chain
Comments
No comments have yet been made