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What is the carbon cycle?
The movement of carbon among living organisms the air, and the ground.
carbon cycle
the carbon cycle - video
The carbon cycle - what is it?
The Carbon Cycle is probably better known as The Circle of Life. Since it is a continuous cycle, there is really no beginning of the cycle but we will start with the plants.
First the plants absorb carbon from the air through their leaves.
Then herbivores eat the plants and the plants give a percentage of their energy and their carbon to the herbivore.
Next carnivores eat the herbivores and that passes along energy and carbon as well.
Finally the carnivore dies, decomposes, and the carbon returns to the soil that eventually grows grass and other plants.
The atmosphere receives carbon from various sources but here are a couple:
- Burned fossil fuels.
- When animals exhale. (Including humans.)
- Believe it or not, volcanoes!
- Plant respiration. (When Plants "breathe" in, they also inhale oxygen so they exhale a portion of carbon dioxide.)
Grass absorbs carbon through leaves. Rabbit eats grass. Fox eats rabbit. Fox eventually dies, decomposes, and becomes soil. Soil grows new grass. That is the Carbon Cycle.