The Carbon Oxygen Cycle
Check your understanding
1. How does carbon exist in the atmosphere?
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2. How are fossil fuels created? Explain.
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3. Describe two ways that carbon enters the atmosphere.
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4. How are the oceans involved in the carbon cycle?
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5. How is the temperature of the Earth partly controlled by carbon?
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6. What role do rocks have within the carbon cycle?
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The Carbon Oxygen Cycle
7. How much of the atmosphere is made of carbon dioxide (CO₂)? _________________________________
8. By how much has CO₂ increased in the atmosphere during the past 150 years?_____________________
9. True or False: The ocean absorbs more CO₂ than the atmosphere._______________________________
10. The deep ocean accounts for how much of the Earths carbon?__________________________________
11. How much carbon does the surface ocean absorb from the atmosphere each year?_________________
12. True or False: When plants die and decay, they bring carbon into soil. ____________________________
13. True or False: Plants grow slower as more carbon is added to the atmosphere._____________________
14. How much of the Earths carbon does soil store?_____________________________________________
15. When carbon enters the deep ocean, how long does it stay there?_______________________________
16. True or False: Phytoplankton are tiny plants and algae that float in the ocean and take up carbon dioxide
as they grow. ________________________________________________________________________
17. True or False: Plants both absorb CO₂ from the atmosphere and release it into the atmosphere.________
18. List two ways that carbon is removed from the atmosphere in the carbon cycle.
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19. List two ways that carbon is returned to the atmosphere in the carbon cycle.
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20. Explain how photosynthesis forms part of the carbon cycle.
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The Carbon Oxygen Cycle
21. The oceans play a key role in the carbon cycle. Research the ways that carbon is used in marine
ecosystems. Create a diagram of the carbon cycle that includes detail about the processes that take
place in marine ecosystems.