Question 1

What are biogeochemical cycles?

Accepted Answer

Pathways for chemical substances to cycle through the biotic and abiotic parts of the earth

(carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, phosphorus cycle, hydrologic cycle)

Question 2

What are carbon sinks?

Accepted Answer

Anything that absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases

(plants, the ocean, soil, etc.)

Question 3

What are carbon sources?

Accepted Answer

Anything that releases more carbon than it absorbs

(burning of fossil fuels, volcanic eruptions, etc.)

Question 4

What is the carbon cycle?

Accepted Answer

The movement of carbon between sources and sinks on Earth

Question 5

What are the two stages of the carbon cycle?

Accepted Answer

Fast carbon cycle: the movement of carbon between living organisms and the atmosphere (animals release their carbon when they die)

Slow carbon cycle: the movement of carbon between the lithosphere (rocks), soil, ocean, and atmosphere (takes millions of years)

Question 6

How does photosynthesis affect the carbon cycle?

Accepted Answer

Plants uptake carbon from the atmosphere and store it within their tissues

(eventually the plant will die, and decomposers will release the stored carbon back into the soil)

Question 7

What is the ocean-atmosphere carbon exchange?

Accepted Answer

The process of the ocean absorbing some CO2 from the atmosphere and releasing roughly the same amount

(the ocean is a huge carbon sink)

Question 8

What is sedimentation?

Accepted Answer

The process of CO2 combining with calcium ions in the ocean to form calcium carbonate, which accumulates as sediment

Question 9

What causes annual fluctuations in carbon dioxide concentration?

Accepted Answer

Green plants do more photosynthesis in the summer and less in the winter

(i.e., levels of photosynthetic activity is seasonal)

Question 10

How can humans disrupt the carbon cycle?

Accepted Answer

Using fossil fuels extracts carbon from the ground faster than sedimentation deposits it back in

Deforestation reduces the number of plants to absorb carbon (forests are huge carbon sinks)

1.4 The Carbon Cycle, AP Environmental Science Flashcards