1. The Carbon Cycle By: Matt Waldman

2. Carbon  4 th most abundant element  “Building Block” of life.  Is the anchor of all organic substances  Found in all living things, atmosphere, and sediment on the ocean floor.

3. The Carbon Cycle http://www.eo.ucar.edu/kids/green/images/carboncycle_sm.jpg

4. The Carbon Cycle http://www.kidsgeo.com/images/carbon-cycle.gif

5. categories  Geological- large time scale carbon cycle. (millions of years)  Biological/physical- shorter time scale carbon cycle. (days to thousands of years)

6. Geological Carbon Cycle  Through a process called weathering, carbonic acid has slowly combined with magnesium and calcium to create insoluble carbonates.  The cycle continues by drawing the carbonates into the mantle by subduction.  The carbon is returned to the atmosphere through volcanic eruption

7. Photosynthesis  Plants absorb carbon out of the atmosphere. Create Carbohydrates.  Animals burn these “carbs” through respiration.  Respiration turns them back into CO2 which is released back into the atmosphere.  This cycle is 1,000 time more effective than the Geological. http://grapevine.net.au/~grunwald/une/KLAs/science/irrigation-photosynthesis.gif

8. Cycle Amounts http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/CarbonCycle/carbon_cycle4.php

9. Carbon Amounts  Carbon=.04% of atmosphere  1,900 gigatons of Carbon in Biosphere.  36,000 gigatons of Carbon in the ocean.  60,000,000 gigatons of Carbon in sedimentary rock  4,000 gigatons of Carbon in fossil fuel deposits

10. Fire  Eats away at biomass and vegetation to produce CO2 into the atmosphere.  The biomass that the fire burned is killed and eventually decomposes creating more CO2. http://www.nmsu.edu/~safety/images/fire_meaney.gif

11. Human Role  Fossil Fuel Burning and Deforestation.  When we burn fossil fuels, we move carbon more rapidly than the natural cycle allows for. Carbon concentrations increase.  Deforestation is taking the carbon from living plants and trees and sending it back into the atmosphere http://library.thinkquest.org/17531/fossiltitle.jpg

12. Human Role  “The result is that humans are adding ever-increasing amounts of extra carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Because of this, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are higher today than they have been over the last half-million years or longer.” (NASA)

13. Human Role  “In the 1990’s, deforestation and other changes in land use caused 1-2 petagrams (1-2 billion metric tons) of carbon to flow from the biota to the atmosphere annually.” (Encyclopedia of the Earth) changes in land usechanges in land use  Equilibrium between carbon in the atmosphere has been disrupted by fossil fuels burning. (2 petagrams greater from atmosphere to ocean)

14. Works Cited  “The Carbon Cycle” NASA. Earth Observatory. Nov. 16, 2008 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/CarbonCycle/ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/CarbonCycle/  Pidwirny, M. (2006). "The Carbon Cycle". Fundamentals of Physical Geography, 2nd Edition. Date Viewed. http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/9r.html  Pidwirny, Michael (Lead Author); Jay Gulledge (Topic Editor). 2008. "Carbon cycle." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). Dec. 12, 2006  Pidwirny, Michael (Lead Author); Jay Gulledge (Topic Editor). 2008. "Carbon cycle." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). Dec. 12, 2006 http://www.eoearth.org/article/Carbon_cycle  Stern, Paul C. “Human Interaction with the Carbon Cycle.” National Research Council. Nov. 5, 2001. http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/Library/0309084202.pdf http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/Library/0309084202.pdf