Carbon and Water Cycles Review

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts, phase changes, environmental spheres, and mechanisms of the Earth's carbon and water cycles.

Ocean Acidification

The process where increased dissolved $CO_2$ causes the ocean to become more acidic, negatively impacting marine life that relies on calcium carbonate for their shells.

Climate

The overall temperature and rainfall averages over an extended period.

Weather

The daily atmospheric conditions on a given day.

Greenhouse Gas

An atmospheric gas (such as $CO_2$) that traps heat from the sun, causing the Earth's temperature to rise, which contributes to extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and disrupted ecosystems.

Carbon Sink

A natural reservoir that absorbs carbon through physical and biological processes; examples include oceans, soil, and forests.

Carbon Source

A process or activity that releases carbon into the atmosphere, such as burning fossil fuels, volcanic eruptions, biological decay, cellular respiration, and deforestation.

Atmosphere

The sphere comprising the layer of gases surrounding the Earth.

Hydrosphere

The sphere comprising all bodies of water on the Earth's surface.

Lithosphere

The rigid outer part of the Earth.

Biosphere

The sphere encompassing all living things on the planet.

Cryosphere

The frozen part of the Earth's surface, including glaciers and icebergs that act as carbon reservoirs by trapping organic matter.

Decomposition

The breakdown of organic material that returns carbon originally stored in living organisms back into the atmosphere in the form of $CO_2$.

Evaporation

The phase change of water from a liquid state into a gas state.

Condensation

The phase change of water from a gas state into a liquid state, such as when water vapor in the air condenses into cloud droplets.

Sublimation

The direct phase change of water from a solid state to a gas state.

Deposition

The direct phase change of water from a gas state to a solid state.

Precipitation

Any form of water that falls from the atmosphere to the Earth's surface, including rain, snow, sleet, freezing rain, and hail.

Transpiration

The process through which plants release water vapor (gas form) into the atmosphere.

Transportation

The movement of water through the water cycle.

Runoff

Precipitation that flows across the land surface instead of soaking into the soil.

Infiltration

The process by which water enters into the soil.

Percolation

The movement of water downward through the soil and rock layers into groundwater.

Plant Uptake

The process by which plants take in water from the soil through their roots.

Groundwater

Water that is stored underground, such as in aquifers.