CARBON CYCLE

Carbon cycle involves movement of a chemical ‘carbon’ from the environment into living organisms and then back to environment.

The atmospheric CO2 enters the plants during photosynthesis – the process by which plants prepare their own food in the presence of sunlight. Carbon of the carbon dioxide gas is stored in the plant body while oxygen is released back into the air.

The animals eat plants and hence carbon enters bodies of animals. The carbon in animals is released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide during respiration.

Sometimes plants are buried under the soil layers due to the crustal movements and hence they get converted into coal due to heat and pressure. When coal is extracted from the mine and burned in factories, carbon in the coal combines with atmospheric oxygen and is released back to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide gas.

Human Impact on the Carbon Cycle

Carbon is one of the most important gases in our atmosphere. Earth needs carbon either for structure, energy or as in the case of humans, for both.

Human activities such as burning of fossil fuels and deforestation are responsible for the rapid increase in carbon dioxide concentration leading to rise in atmospheric temperatures.

Higher concentrations of carbon dioxide and other green house gases leads to increased trapping of infrared radiation. This results in warming up of temperatures at lower levels, change in weather patterns and climate.

Increased concentration of CO2 has an important impact on plant growth – some plants respond more favorably to increase in CO2 than others.