The Carbon Cycle
Let’s look at one of the cycles in detail. When animals feed on plants, they get carbon compounds the plants have made in photosynthesis and pass these along the food chain. Animals release carbon into the atmosphere during respiration in the form of carbon dioxide gas.
Both animals and plants carry out respiration as they perform life functions. When plants and animals die, decomposers release the carbon stored inside as carbon dioxide and return basic nutrients to the soil that other plants can use.
Check out this interactive, which examines how carbon moves between living and nonliving members of the environment; the reservoirs that store carbon in the air, on land, and in the ocean; and the effects human activities have had on the amount of carbon being released into the atmosphere. Then answer the questions in Take Notes below.
Take Notes
- How could this interactive help elicit student thinking about the carbon cycle? What common student conception(s) can it help address?
- How does the interactive visualize the impact that human activities have had on the carbon cycle, particularly carbon in the environment?
