Term
| What processes directly run short term terrestrial and marine orgainic carbon cycles? |
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Definition
Photosynthesis
Resperation
Decomposition |
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Term
What are the short term carbron reservoirs?
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Definition
Soils and Sediments
Atmosphere
Living organisms |
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Term
| How is organic carbon froms in soils and sediments? |
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Definition
| this is formed from the bodies of dead decomposing organisms |
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Term
How much more carbon is in soil and sediments vs living orgaisms |
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Definition
2.5 times
more carbon in dead organisms than living |
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Term
| What two types of dead organic carbon does the soil hold? |
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Definition
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Term
| What does litter consist of? |
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Definition
dead material that still has some recognizable structure to it
Ex: decaying logs, leaves |
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Term
| What does humus consist of? |
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Definition
| partices iof the hard to decar organinc matter, broken down until they are the size of tiny clay particles |
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Term
| what is the reservoir residence time for litter and humus in the soil repsectivley? |
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Definition
few years for leaves
few decades for logs
few centuries for humus |
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Term
| where does carbon in humus have its highest abundance? |
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Definition
| Swamps and marshes because decompostion is low when organic matter is wet |
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Term
| where does the largest amount of carbon for litter exist? |
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Definition
| boreal forrest because the cool dry weather results in logs decomposing very slowly |
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Term
| Define Net Primary Productivity |
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Definition
| net weight of carbon added to living plants in a given area or given unit of time |
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Term
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Definition
Photosynthesis - plant respiration
Plants are reservoirs
PS are inputs and respiration are outputs |
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Term
| When does photosynthesis occur? |
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Definition
| Just during the growing season |
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Term
| when does respiration occur? |
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Definition
| this occurs all year round to keep plants alive |
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Term
| In terms of net primary productivity what are the reservoirs, inputs and outputs? |
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Definition
The reservoir is are plants
Photosynthesis is the input
respiration is the output |
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Term
| what happens when inputs are larger than ouputs? |
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Definition
| Plants or living organisms in general will gain weight |
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Term
| What kind of NPP pattern is present in january? |
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Definition
Climate-related spatial pattern
positive values means photosynthesis occuring
negative values means repseration is occuring |
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Term
| What do we use to study NPP? |
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Definition
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Term
| From 2000-2009 where was the highest NPP? what trend did it follow? |
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Definition
The highest NPP was found in the tropics of south america and it decreased as you head poleward
lowest in the dessert? |
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Term
in terms of Atmospheric c02 levels what occurs when NPP is high or low?
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Definition
| When NPP is high we see a slow increase in atmospheric NPP levels however when NPP is low we see the C02 levels grow faster |
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Term
| Explain the spacial variations of NPP from 2000-2009 |
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Definition
| the rate of NPP decreased in the tropics because high heat resulted in droughts. and we saw an increase in NPP in the higher latitude and this was because higher temps exttended the growing seasons resulting in more growth |
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Term
| What happened to global NPP from 2000-2009 regarding overall levels? |
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Definition
| we saw a 1% decrease in overall levels. Although there we added more C02 to the atmosphere this did not enable plants to grow faster. It actually created higher temperatures which led to droughts and cause lower plant growth |
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Term
| how do producers in the marine organic carbon cycle produce food? |
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Definition
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Term
| Who are important marine producers? |
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Definition
Phyto Plankton
through photosynthesis |
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Term
Where do most phyto Plankton live?
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Definition
| top 200 meters of the ocean becasue this is where light can shine and photosynthesis to occur |
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Term
| What are consumers in the marine organic carbon cycle? |
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Definition
| Consumers are organisms that depend on producers for food |
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Term
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Definition
The consumers are zooplankton which eat phyto plankton
Radiolarians and forminiferans |
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Term
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Definition
| these are animals that can swim against the current can range from small to whales |
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Term
Describe the biological pump? |
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Definition
pulls c02 from the atmosphere into the ocean
Photosynthesis reduces c02 levels by phytoplankton
zooplankton eat phyto plankton... dead plankton and faeces from zoo plankton sink to the bottom
decomposers eat phyto plankton zoo plankton and faeces and release c02 into the ocean
more plankton per cubic yard of surface ocean, means more carbon that will ultimatly end up in the underlying sedimeans, which means more c02 that can be dissolved into the surface ocean from the atmosphere |
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Term
| How much carbon from formerly living organisms becom incorperated into ocean sediment? |
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Definition
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Term
| why does july show high phoitosynthesis in the the northern latitudes? |
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Definition
| In the norther latitiudes the warming of surface oceans evens the temp between surface and deep ocean allowing nutrients from the deep ocean to rise to the surface ocean... however in warmer places it heats the surface to much to the point it todes not mix well with the deep ocean so the nutrients will not rise. |
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