Carbon Cycle & Carbon Dioxide
Carbon is stored in the following five major sinks (1) As organic molecules
found in the biosphere (2) As the gas carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (3) As
organic matter in soils (4) In the Lithosphere as fossil fuels and sedimentary
rock (5) In the oceans as dissolved atmospheric carbon dioxide and as calcium
carbonate shells in marine organisms.
The carbon cycle is the circulation of carbon in the form of the simple element
and its compounds through nature. The source of carbon in living things is
carbon dioxide (CO2), from air or dissolved in water. Algae and green plants
(producers) use CO2 in photosynthesis to make carbohydrates, used in the
processes of metabolism tomake all other compounds in their tissues and those
of animals that consume them (herbivores). The carbon may pass through several
levels of herbivores and carnivores (consumers). Animals and (at night) plants
return the CO2 to the atmosphere as a byproduct of respiration. The carbon in
animal wastes and the bodies of organisms is released as CO2, in a series of
steps, by decay organisms (decomposers), chiefly bacteria and fungi. Some
organic carbon (the remains of organisms) has accumulated in the earth's crust
in fossil fuels, limestone, and coral. The carbon of fossil fuels, removed from
the cycle in prehistoric times, is being returned in vast quantities as CO2 via
industrial and agricultural processes, some accumulating in the oceans as
dissolved carbonates and some staying in the atmosphere Here is an illustration
of the carbon cycle
![](co2.gif)
Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have been rising drastically in the past 50 years and based on the trend are continuing to do so. As seen in the graph of atmospheric carbon dioxide, levels have risen drastically in the pacific over the past fifty years. The small spikes seen to be caused by seasonal changes from changing foliage levels.
![](CO2.jpg)
CO2 effects on the rainforest and discovered the drastic influence the rainforest plays as a carbon dioxide sink (due to photosynthesis reaction [ + H2O => C6H12O6 + O2]).