Carbon Cycle and Its Importance – Imaluop

Hi, we are going to discuss the carbon cycle and its importance for our environment but if you want to know more about other biogeochemical cycles in our environment then it will give more details on how different natural resources are recycled in our environment. 

Basic Idea About Carbon Cycle: 

Carbon is an important constituent of living systems as well as it is present in the atmosphere in the form of various oxides of carbon and in nature it is present in free as well as combined state.

The carbon present in different sources rotate themselves to maintain the continuous carbon supply for various purposes like production of organic food in plants by the process of photosynthesis and it releases the carbon content from the organic decaying animal and plant body so that it can be available for other living organisms. 

Different Steps in Carbon Cycle: 

• Carbon present in atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide and it is absorbed by the photosynthetic plants for producing their own food by the process of photosynthesis and during photosynthesis the carbon dioxide is converted into organic foods glucose which then used by plant and other dependant herbivores animals.  
• When the plant is used by the herbivores then the carbon content reaches into the herbivores and then the carbon content transfers from one trophic level to another higher trophic levels through the food chain. 
• When the animals break down the food by the process of cellular respiration the carbon rich food molecules break down into carbon dioxide and energy is released during this process is stored in the form of ATP and the carbon dioxide goes outside of their body and mixes with atmospheric carbon dioxide again. 
• With time the animals and plants become old and at some time they die and after their death differ microorganisms present in soil start to decompose the dead plant and animal body which break down the complex compound present in animal and plant body and give back the carbon content in the environment again. 
• But all portions of dead animals and plants bodies are not decomposed by microorganisms and converted into atmospheric carbon, some portion of animal and plant body converted into fossil fuels under the earth crust due to very high temperature and pressure and when we use the fossil fuels it produce different oxides of carbon which return to atmosphere.  

Oceanic Carbon Cycle: 

In an oceanic environment carbon has very high demand so the oceanic environment takes more carbon than it gives back carbon into the atmosphere for this reason the ocean is known as carbon sink.

Now we will discuss why the ocean needs so much carbon content than the land environment, a large number of oceanic organisms make hard shells around their body and during this process they use carbon and convert it into calcium carbonate and the calcium carbonate does not give back carbon dioxide easily.

When the shell organisms die their body decompose easily by the activities of detritivore present in oceanic floor but their calcareous shell remain in oceanic floor which accumulate with time and due to high pressure convert into limestone and when the limestone break down by the process of weathering carbon dioxide is released and mix with atmosphere. 

Importance of Carbon Cycle: 

Carbon is a major element required for living systems because carbohydrates, protein, lipid, nucleic acids are made of carbon chains and in our atmosphere carbon has a great role to maintain global climatic conditions.

Carbon is present in the environment in different forms in a combined state but our environment also needs carbon content on a daily basis so if the carbon content already present in different organisms does not return to the environment again then it will be impossible to supply the carbon content further.

Carbon cycle makes the carbon content available always by releasing the carbon content where it is not required and supplying the carbon content where it needs by their mechanism of carbon recycling in nature.