AP Environmental Science / Unit 1: The Living World: Ecosystems
1.4 The Carbon Cycle
Notes
Carbon moves between the atmosphere, organisms, oceans and rocks.
- Photosynthesis removes $\mathrm{CO_2}$; respiration and combustion add it.
- Sinks: oceans, forests, sediments, fossil fuels. Sources: burning, decomposition.
- Human fossil fuel burning moves carbon from long-term storage to the air fast.
Practice
Which removes $\mathrm{CO_2}$ from the atmosphere?
Plants fix carbon.
The largest carbon reservoir:
Long-term storage.
Burning fossil fuels increases atmospheric $\mathrm{CO_2}$ because it:
Fast transfer from a slow reservoir.
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