CYCLES QUIZ REVIEW
What are carbonates?
Carbonates are rocks made of calcium or magnesium and CARBON
What is an example of a carbonate?
LIMESTONE
What is the Carbon Cycle?
The process where carbon in the air is cycled between plants, animals, and the environment
Is coal a carbonate?
No, it has no calcium or magnesium
What is coal?
COAL is a rock that is petrified plants. Ican be up to 98 percent pure carbon.
How does carbon dioxide in the air become organic carbon compounds?
Plants take in CO2 and convert it to carbon compounds through photosynthesis.
Animals use it in cellular respiration to obtain energy. When the breath, they exhale co. as a waste product of the cellular respiration
how do carbonates and coal store carbon for long periods?
They store it as stable rock that will hold it indefinitely underground
Why is Limestone called a carbon sink?
It takes carbon out of the environment and locks it up indefinitely
What is another carbon sink that humans have been exploiting to make energy?
COAL, OIL & GAS
Why has the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere been increasing over the centuries?
Fossil fuels that have held carbon for hundreds of millions of years are releasing CO2 when they are burned.
How does the ocean remove some of the CO2 from the atmosphere?
Water will naturally absorb quantities of CO2, but in so doing, it becomes acidic Shellfish use Co2 in making their shells, which then become carbonate rock
What are the environmental consequences of increased atmospheric CO2?
Acid Rain Global Warming
What do plants and animals use Nitrogen compounds for?
Building protein
What converts atmospheric Nitrogen into nitrogen compounds that plants can use?
Nitrogen Fixing bacteria
In the soil on nodules that are on legume (bean family) roots
How do plants with no nitrogen fixing bacteria get nitrogen?
From excess nitrates that accumulate in the soil
How do nitrogen compounds from plants and animals get back into the soil?
Decomposed orgaincs and Doo Doo
How does a small amount of Nitrogen gas NATURALLY get back into the atmosphere?
Some decomposers turn nitrates into CO2
It stays in the environment in the soil, water, and living organisms
What do animals use phosphorus for?
Bones and teeth
Where do plants get phosphorus?
Small amounts of phosphorus salts wash out of rocks and soil
Where do animals get phosphorus?
From eating plants
Does the phosphorus cycle occur in the atmosphere?
From water that has dissolved phosphorus from rocks
How do plants and animals put phosphorus into the soil?
Decomposers release it when plants and animals die.
Why does much phosphorus accumulate on the ocean floor?
Some phosphorus salts are insoluble in water, and it gets washed into the oceans.
In what way does Man sometimes cause excess phosphorus to accumulate in the soil?
We use too much fertilizer on our lawns
What is the problem with excess phosphorus in the water?
It causes Algae and seaweed to overgrow, which blocks out the sunlight, makes O2 production stop, and kills nearly every thing