ENVS 2270 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Radiocarbon Dating, Uranium-238, United Nations Environment Programme

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Environmental Sciences
• Course: ENVS 2270
• Professor: Kim Bolton

Document Summary

Carbon is one of the most important non-metallic elements on the planet. There are four very large pools of carbon on the planet: organic: carbon trapped in living things or the remnants of living things, limestone/rock: lots of carbon in calcium carbonate rocks ( Largest reservoir of carbon: atmosphere: full of carbon dioxide, ocean: big carbon sink. Biogeochemical cycle: unites all components (lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere) 3 basic ideas about the way in which carbon moves: carbon is stored in different reservoirs and is exchanged between these reservoirs, carbon enters and leaves at different rates, carbon only remains in reservoirs (cid:498)temporarily(cid:499) Photosynthesis brings atmospheric carbon into plants and vegetation: respiration is the reverse. The more co2 in the atmosphere the more that is driven into the oceans: consume and release co2. Calcification (consumes co2 over the long term), co2 being trapped in rock: formation of calcium carbonate, oceans and fresh water.