Element carbon essential to life.
- all organic compounds made of carbon skeletons that originate from carbon dioxide and water during photosynthesis.
- most of the organic carbon on Earth → contained in cells of living organisms → like fossil fuels and plastics we make from them
Ocean Uptake
- oceans and other large bodies of water absorb Carbon dioxide
- some marine plants use dissolved gas to photosynthesise.
- it is also converted to carbonic acid and calcium carbonate → that makes up shells of marine organisms + accumulate on seabed when they die
Photosynthesis
- plants take in carbon dioxide and water to make glucose and oxygen in the presence of sunlight
- glucose used in other processes that sustain plant life
Combustion
- most fossil fuels contain mainly methane.
- they are burnt in presence of oxygen to generate energy. carbon dioxide is product of combustion
other sources of carbon present in environment comes from inorganic origins.
- rocks, sediments, dissolved in water, carbon dioxide in air
Definition
Carbon cycle describes a set of processes that regulates the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere #ChemistryDefinitions
carbon cycle describes how carbon containing compounds are converted from 1 form to another.
- involves land, oceans, lakes, and atmosphere