Biogeochemical Cycles WebQuest
Directions: Visit the following websites and answer the related questions. Your goal is to
gain a better understanding of the water and carbon and cycles.
Background: In biogeochemical cycles (including carbon, water and nitrogen cycles),
elements are transported between the atmosphere, biosphere (living things), hydrosphere
(water), and geosphere (rocks, minerals, and soils). These cycles help us remember that
Earth is a complex system.
To access each link  Hold down control & Click on the web address.
__________________________________________________________________________
Water Cycle: https://mpt.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/dce5a696-4f0c-47c5-a2ba5e517c779089/water-cycle-animation/
Directions: Watch & listen to the series of animations to answer the following
question.
1. What is evaporation?
2. What is condensation? How are clouds formed?
3. What is precipitation?
4. What is runoff?
5. What is infiltration? What is groundwater?
6. What factors affect how much infiltration can occur?
7. Increased ____________________ and ____________________ dries out the ground
leaving _______________ water to move to the atmosphere, fewer clouds and less
precipitation, which can lead to __________________________________.
8. What causes sea levels to rise?
Carbon Cycle:
Go to http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/Water/co2_cycle.html and
answer these questions:
1. How does carbon exist in the atmosphere?
2. How are fossil fuels created?
3. Describe two ways that carbon enters the atmosphere.
4. How are the oceans involved in the carbon cycle?
5. How is the temperature of the Earth partly controlled by carbon?
6. What role do rocks have within the carbon cycle?
Go to http://www.windows.ucar.edu/earth/climate/carbon_cycle.html to play
the carbon cycle game. You are a carbon atom!
7. Where are you starting within the carbon cycle?
“Click to begin your journey”
8. How much of the atmosphere is made of carbon dioxide (CO2)?
9. By how much has CO2 increased in the atmosphere during the past 150 years?
As you work through this game, take some notes about where you go as a carbon
atom. Make sure you visit all reservoirs!
The deep ocean
accounts for more
than _____ % of
10. Next stop = _________________________________________
the Earth’s
carbon.
What did you learn?
11. Next stop = _________________________________________
What did you learn?
12. Next stop = _________________________________________
What did you learn?
13. Next stop = _________________________________________
What did you learn?
14. Next stop = _________________________________________
What did you learn?
How much carbon
does the surface
ocean absorb from
the atmosphere
each year?
______________
True or False:
When plants die
and decay, they
bring carbon into
soil. __________
True or False:
Plants both absorb
CO2 from the
atmosphere and
release it into the
atmosphere.
True or False:
Phytoplankton are
tiny plants and
algae that float in
the ocean and take
up carbon dioxide
as they grow.
When carbon
enters the deep
ocean, how long
does it stay there?
____________
The Roots of the Carbon Cycle:
https://mpt.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/b1943ed9-9781-4d75-872f-ee5b26fe28a6/the-roots-ofthe-carbon-cycle/
1. What factors contribute to the rate at which carbon moves between the soil and the
atmosphere?
2. Currently, there is __________________ as much organic carbon in our _________
than our __________________ of Earth.
3. As plants grow, what do they absorb and what do they store?
4. How does carbon become part of the soil?
5. What is another way carbon becomes part of the soil?
6. What is in the soil that releases gaseous carbon back into the atmosphere?
7. What contributes to the higher rates of decomposition of plants and animals?
8. Different soil conditions affect the carbon cycle in different ways. What are the 3 ways?
Explore & explain each one. Next: There are 18 different combinations of scenes.