In Part 1 of this lab, you learned that green plants within the terrestrial biosphere can act both as a carbon sink – as they turn CO2 and water into carbohydrates through photosynthesis – and as a carbon source – as they respire CO2 produced by the metabolism of carbohydrates when the plants need energy. There is more of an expectation of you providing a certain answer for a question of this type as compared to questions of the other types. Part One Using the diagram above, match the description to the corresponding location in the carbon cycle model. Both plants and the animals who eat them can break the carbohydrates (mostly the sugar glucose) back down into water and carbon dioxide, getting some useful energy out of the process, and releasing the CO2 through respiration. As has been in the case in previous labs, we are interested in changes over time – in this case, changes in the global carbon budget. Vegetation, radiative transfer, atmospheric chemistry • Atmospheric CO 2 and CH4 analysis and forecast They use energy from the sun to chemically combine carbon dioxide with hydrogen and oxygen from water to create sugar molecules. As you have hopefully deduced by looking at the title of the lab, the name of the cycle is the carbon cycle. Q2: Where did the 9 petagrams of carbon emitted into the atmosphere by anthropogenic activities in 2010 end up going? that sphere is acting as a carbon sink). Carbon is the backbone of life on Earth. Burning organic material, such as fossil fuels, releases carbon dioxide. Q17: What has been the general trend in the amount of carbon taken up by the atmosphere, oceans, and terrestrial biosphere over the last 50+ years? The picture below shows the global carbon budget for 2010. True. Q4: Green plants both photosynthesize (causing them to act as a carbon sink) and respire (causing them to act as a carbon source); based on the carbon cycle picture to the right above, are these plants a net sink or source of carbon? How would you best describe general changes in the anthropogenic emissions of CO2 and the uptake of carbon by the atmosphere, oceans, and terrestrial biosphere from 1959 to 2014? Q9: In the Plant Bowen picture, the cooling towers are highlighted. They learn how carbon atoms travel through the geological (ancient) carbon cycle and the biological/physical carbon cycle. The graphic below shows the amount of carbon released from the main sources and taken in by the main sinks from 1959 to 2014. mechanical energy. These data were derived from two sensors (the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder and the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A) on-board NASA’s Aqua satellite. You might be wondering why we are not working with data more recent than 2014. For example, one response from the parts of the carbon cycle system to the increased CO2 levels from fossil fuel combustion could be increased absorption of CO2 by green plants to drive photosynthesis. Click CO2_2010 to open the file in Google™ Earth and see changes in monthly CO2 concentrations in 2010. Oceans and the Carbon Cycle Part A: Down to the Deep - The Ocean's Biological Pump. They consider how human activities disturb the carbon cycle by emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That is because the lab also is focused on how human activity can influence those processes – and potentially influence the weather and climate on the planet. Where has more and more of the carbon been going? Ideally, the Earth would have a ‘balanced spreadsheet’ where those two amounts were equal; as you examine the picture you should consider whether this was the case in 2010. Challenge activities include writing equations and an extended writing exercise. About this resource. Then have students watch It’s All About Carbon, a series of short videos produced by National Public Radio. Another way of saying that is that the amount of carbon in the lithosphere (in the form of fossil fuels) is decreasing, and the amount of carbon in the atmosphere (in the form of CO2), biosphere and hydrosphere is increasing. What is it that is coming out of the cooling towers? Updated: Feb 22, 2018. docx, 512 KB. ... Save for later. The image in the middle is of Plant Bowen, a coal-burning power plant near Cartersville, GA; it should be familiar to you as the background of the Prezi. When that combustion of fossil fuels takes place, carbon with hydrogen atoms attached to it (hydrocarbons) is transformed to carbon with oxygen attached to it (carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide). Hypothesis-based question → This will be a question which will require you to stretch your mind little bit. 3 e Biosphere drives the global carbon cycle 4 g Natural processes of CO2 removal from atmosphere is slow; Long residence time of some GHG 6 c Human activities have increased GHG levels and altered global climate patterns As with any system in nature, the other parts of the system can respond to such a stress on the system’s equilibrium. Q14: For the source that had the largest increase over those years, what do you think was responsible for that increase? Positive values of NPP indicate that more carbon was absorbed by photosynthesis than was released by respiration (i.e., that the terrestrial biosphere was acting as a carbon sink); negative values indicate the opposite situation. The atmospheric, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere can have positive or negative values since they can act as sources or sinks. Humans are moving more carbon into the atmosphere from other parts of the Earth system. In the Troposphere Lab, we learned about the Clean Air Act in the United States in which different sets of regulations controlling various pollutants in the air were passed in 1970, 1977, and 1990. We need carbon, but that need is also entwined with one of the most serious problems facing us today: global climate change. Before we do so, though, it is important for us to remember that the carbon cycle represents a global system, so even though we have looked at the cycle in manageable portions, we have to remember that the processes in each portion are interrelated and any change in one process produces changes in the others. Students will understand and be able to identify carbon sources, sinks, and release agents in the carbon cycle. Click MODIS Land Cover to open the file in Google™ Earth and including location of these different types of forests. If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on … Click CarbonEmissions_1959-2014 to open the Excel file of interest. This is the kind of carbon that is found in living plants among other things, and we call it that because it can easily move into and out of the carbon cycle. There is not one certain answer to a question of this type. Identify two sinks. Look at the picture below that focuses on that portion: the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and the biosphere. Sugar is broken down and converted to carbon dioxide. You will see in later labs just how important this relatively small concentration of CO2 is with expect to Earth’s energy balance, but for now we need to focus on the cycle in which atmospheric CO2 is involved. The carbon cycle involves a series of processes by which carbon compounds are interconverted in the environment.
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