The Carbon

cycle

Year 9
Science

This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you

will be able to:
• Explain the processes in the
carbon cycle in terms of
photosynthesis, respiration and
decomposition.
• Describe how organisms use
carbon.
• Examine the impact of human
activity on the carbon cycle.
What will we
cover in this
lesson?
 Plants take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for growth and
photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis is the way that plants produce their energy stores, by

converting carbon dioxide to glucose with aid from sunlight. You may
have seen the chemical equation for this in your other studies:
Carbon fixation

Where do plants source all of these nutrients from? Plants absorb

carbon dioxide through the stomata (pores) in their leaves, and absorb
water from the soil through their roots. Plant leaves also
contain chloroplasts, little organelles that absorb sunlight to power
the chemical reactions that convert carbon from an unusable
inorganic form (carbon dioxide) to a usable organic form (glucose).
Because of this, photosynthesis is sometimes called carbon fixation.
 How do we take the usable carbon from
plants?
• We eat them! This applies to all organisms not capable of
photosynthesis, or in other words, all consumers. We take carbon
as glucose, or as the complex carbohydrates and other
molecules that make up the plant.
 With that usable carbon, we can
finally produce
energy through respiration.
• In a nutshell, respiration converts glucose into adenosine
triphosphate (ATP), the power unit of all chemical processes.
• Respiration can occur aerobically (with oxygen)
or anaerobically (without). Aerobic respiration is essentially the
reverse of photosynthesis, as shown below:
Formation of
Shells and
limestones
You saw that respiration is one process
of returning carbon dioxide to the
atmosphere. But how do we return the
carbon locked inside of organisms?
Decomposers
• Decomposers break down the dead organisms and
return the carbon in their bodies to the atmosphere as
carbon dioxide by respiration. In some conditions,
decomposition is blocked. The plant and animal
material may then be available as fossil fuel in the
future for combustion.
 What did we cover in this section?
• Carbon exists as unusable inorganic carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
• Plants absorb carbon dioxide for growth and photosynthesis, which
converts carbon dioxide into usable organic glucose.
• Many organisms feed on plants or other organisms to gain usable carbon.
• All organisms respire, which returns carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
• When organisms die, decomposers and detritivores break down the
organic matter, which returns more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
• Carbon dioxide also dissolves in the ocean into carbonic acid, providing
carbon that can be used to build shells or stored as limestone.
• Carbon is stored in trees and limestone, as well as in coal and fossils.
 Before we
move on, we’ll
revisit this
diagram. See if
you can follow
carbon as it
is used and
recycled!
Explain the impact of human
activities on Carbon cycle

Exit Task