GEOS 170A1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Carbon Cycle, Acid Rain, Photosynthesis
23 Mar 2017
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Document Summary
Day to day or hour to hour state of the atmosphere. Not day to day changes or even seasonal changes. Carbon naturally moves between oceans, atmosphere and lithosphere. Humans are changing the cycle by returning carbon from fossil fuels to the atmosphere and oceans faster than it is removed from atmosphere. Photosynthesis by plants take co2 out of atmosphere. 404 ppm (parts per million) is 0. 04% of the earth"s atmosphere. If you had in pennies, so 10k pennies, it would be equal to 4 pennies. Concentration is gradually increasing (burning fossil fuels) Photosynthesis by green plants, algae and bacteria. Co2 dissolves in ocean water and is converted to carbonate and bicarbonate. Fires that burn organic compounds (forests, etc. ) Co2 concentrations measured for last 60+ years at mauna loa, hawaii far from cities, etc. Shows ppm increasing at positive rate over the years--exponential curve tho. Co2 has increased from ~320 ppm in 1960 to ~400 9n 2017.
