Carbon Cycle

Carbon Cycle Definition

The carbon cycle is the cycle by which the element carbon moves through our Earth’s various systems.

The Earth is a closed system; that is, it cannot gain or lose materials or resources. Instead, materials must be
used and re-used many times over for life to be sustainable. This applies to materials including carbon,
oxygen, nitrogen, and water.

Carbon is an essential element for life as we know it because of its ability to form stable bonds with other
molecules. DNA and RNA, proteins, sugars, and lipids all depend on carbon backbones: carbon provides a
stable structure that allows the chemistry of life to happen. Without carbon, none of these molecules could
exist and function in the ways that permit the chemistry of life to occur.

When the Earth was formed – it was formed with many carbon-containing gases like CO2 and rocks and, in
time, living things developed as a result of carbon and other atoms reacting together.

In time, oxygen (O2) appeared in the atmosphere as a result of early types of photosynthesis. Organisms then
developed a highly efficient method of liberating the energy stored in carbon-based organic molecules like
sugars. Using this process of “cellular respiration,” animals and other oxygen-breathers started turning
O2 back into CO2 – effectively spitting out the carbon atoms once contained in sugars, proteins, and lipids
after extracting all of their energy.

This happy balance of plants turning carbon dioxide into living matter while animals and the plants
themselves release it back into the atmosphere has existed for billions of years. New steps became
incorporated – such as the formation of fossil fuels, which occurs when organic matter such as dead plants
and animals become trapped underground by geologic processes.

The diagram illustrates some common ways in which

carbon moves through the ecosystem:

Function of Carbon Cycle

The carbon cycle, under normal circumstances, works to ensure the stability of variables such as the Earth’s
atmosphere, the acidity of the ocean, and the availability of carbon for use by living things.

Steps of Carbon Cycle

To become part of the carbon cycle, carbon atoms start out as carbon dioxide gas (CO2) in the atmosphere or
dissolved in the oceans.
Today, carbon is also released into the atmosphere through the activities of living things, such the
exhalations of animals, the actions of decomposer organisms, and the burning of wood and fossil fuels by
humans.

1. Photosynthesisers Absorb Carbon

“Producers” – green plants that produce food from sunlight - absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
and use it to build sugars, lipids, proteins, and other essential building blocks of life.

2. Producers are Eaten

“Consumers” are organisms that eat other living things. Animals are the most visible type of consumer in
our ecosystems, though many types of microbes also fall into this category.

Consumers incorporate the carbon compounds from plants and other food sources when they eat them.

3. Cellular Respiration
Producers use energy from sunlight to make bonds between carbon atoms and so ‘build’ carbon-based
compounds. Some of this food is used for energy reserves by the plants themselves, and by animals which
eat the plants. The carbon-based compounds are broken down again to release the energy they contain and
ultimately release the carbon back into the atmosphere in the form of CO2.

But it’s not always the last step of the carbon cycle. What about the carbon compounds that don’t get eaten,
or broken down by animals?

4. Decomposers Release Carbon by their own Cellular Respiration

Plants and animals that die without being eaten by other animals are broken down by other organisms, called
“decomposers.”

Decomposers include many bacteria and some fungi. They usually only break down matter that is already
dead, rather than catching and eating a living animal or plant.

Just like animals, decomposers break down the chemical bonds in their food molecules. They create many
chemical produces, including in some cases CO2.

5. Sedimentation and the Formation of Fossil Fuels

Not all dead organisms are decomposed. Some, especially those in the oceans, die and drop to the bottom,
where layers and layers of undecomposed matter accumulates and is gradually compressed. Fossil fuels,
such as oil, gas and coal are formed in this way.

Fossil fuels thus represent a huge store of carbon.

6. Combustion of Fossil Fuels

Humans are the only animals we know of who can create fire on purpose. And we set fire to things a lot.

Our transport depends on burning fossil fuels – oil and gasoline, which are made of dead plant and animal
material that spent millions of years buried deep in the Earth.

Many of our electrical power plants are powered by burning fossil fuels as well, including coal, which is
another form of dead plant matter that was buried underground and transformed by geologic heat.

Lastly, humans also burn a lot of wood. We no longer burn wood to power our machines but now we often
burn forests in order to clear land for agriculture, mining, and other purposes.

The scientific community has shown beyond any doubt that, by making significant changes to the Earth’s
carbon cycle, we are changing our climate and other important aspects of the biosphere. Our very survival is
now threatened!