APES 1.4 Carbon Cycle

Carbon Cycle

• Photosynthesis: Land and ocean, uses CO2 to create sugars for producers
• Respiration: Land and ocean, sugars are converted back to CO2
• Burial/sedimentation: Land and ocean, carbon is buried
• Extraction: Human extraction of fossil fuels and subsequent combustion, releasing back into the cycle
• Exchange: CO2 dissolves into the ocean and is lifted into the atmosphere at an equal rate
• Combustion: Converts fossil fuels and plant material into CO2

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• In this cycle, carbon moves through reservoirs of the atmosphere and ocean, through organisms, and then back again.
• Photosynthesizers capture the carbon and use it to make sugars and sustenance (these are called producers, or autotrophs.)
• The cycle continues in organisms as producers are eaten and eventually exits as respiration or decomposition.

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• In aquatic environments, carbon is in shelled creatures that can become buried, depositing carbon into the ground.

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• Carbon is slowly converted into huge reservoirs of oil, natural gas, and other fossil fuels.
• They can stay like this for millions of years.

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• Humans burn this for energy and release it back into the atmosphere.
• Without humans, the carbon cycle is steady, but we have tipped the scale.

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