Carbon Cycle and Energy Flow

Carbon Cycle and Energy Flow

By Brooke Crigger

Agenda

For this lesson, we will be taking a look at how carbon is cycled through an ecosystem and how it is connected to the global climate process

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“You will die, but the carbon will not; its career does not end with you. It will return to the soil, and there a plant will take it up again in time, sending it once more on a cycle of plant and animal life.”

—Jacob Bronowski​

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The biosphere included's all of Earth's organisms (all living the living things).

• Life in the biosphere ​depends on a continuous inflow of energy from the sun.

• Energy flows through food chains/food webs​

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Multiple Choice

What is the name of the energy carrying molecule found in the cells of living things?

• ADP

• ATP

• ATC

• ACT

Multiple Choice

What does ATP stand for?

• Adenosine Tetraphosphate

• Adenosine Diphosphate

• Adenosine Triphosphate

• Adenine Trephosphate

Plant cells use the energy from sunlight to make sugar molecules from CO₂ (carbon dioxide) and H₂0 (water)

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​Reactants are on the left side of the arrow. Products on the right

Photosynthesis

Multiple Choice

What is the chemical formula for glucose (sugar)?

• CO₂

• H₂O

• C₆H₁₂O₆

• O₂

Multiple Choice

Observe the equation for photosynthesis: 6 CO₂ + 6 H₂O ---> C₆H₁₂O₆ + O₂. Are the number of carbon atoms on each side of the arrow...

• Same

• Different

• You can't tell

Atoms and energy are neither created nor destroyed in biological processes. The number of carbons, hydrogens, and oxygen are the same on both sides of the equation.

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• Energy can be transformed from one type to another. During energy transfers and transformations, some of the energy coming in is transformed to heat energy.​

Subject | Subject

Photosynthesis provides the glucose needed for cellular respiration.

• Plants and animals both use cellular respiration.

• Use ATP to drive processes necessary for life.​

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Cellular Respiration

Multiple Choice

What is the purpose of cellular respiration?

• To make food

• To take in food

• To release energy from food

• To release oxygen

Carbon is one of the major components of living organisms (proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids)

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The Carbon Cycle:

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1. ​Carbon enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide from respiration (breathing) and combustion (burning of fossil fuels)

2. Carbon dioxide is absorbed by producers (plants) to make carbohydrates in photosynthesis. O₂ is released.​

Animals feed on the plants passing on the carbon compounds. These compounds are exhaled as carbon dioxide through respiration. The animals and plants the eventually die.

​​Step 3

Decomposers in the ground eat the dead organisms. They release nutrients back into the soil or aquatic environment. These are then released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

Step 4

​Carbon dioxide can be released when wood or fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) are burned. Too much of this increases the amount of carbon in the atmosphere which causes global temperatures to rise due to the greenhouse effect.

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The Greenhouse Effect

Multiple Choice

What process removes carbon from the atmosphere?

• Combustion

• Photosynthesis

• Cellular Respiration

• Decomposition

Multiple Choice

Combustion is another word for _____

• Burning

• Transportation

• Respiration

• Fossil fuels

Multiple Choice

All of the carbon in existence is continually recycled in the carbon cycle.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

Organisms that do not decompose can be buried and become what?

• Water

• Air

• Nutrients

• Fossil Fuels

Multiple Choice

Carbon can be found in...

• The atmosphere

• Fossil Fuels

• Soil

• All of the above

Multiple Choice

The average temperature of the Earth's surface has increased by more then $$1\degree C$$   in the past century. Which best explains this increase in temperature.

• Lower levels of ozone in the atmosphere

• Higher levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere

• Lower levels of nitrogen in the atmosphere

• Higher levels of oxygen in the atmosphere.

Multiple Choice

How has human activity influenced the carbon cycle and increased the amount of carbon in the atmosphere?

• Burning fossil fuels

• Cutting down trees

• The industrial revolution

• All of the above

Let's Review the Carbon Cycle