What is the Carbon Cycle?

• Oceanic Properties
• Future Trends
• Carbon Cycle Balance
• Destination of Atmospheric Carbon
• Sources of Atmospheric Carbon

The cycling of carbon from the atmosphere to organic compounds and back again not only involves life but also involves the atmosphere. The carbon cycle describes the pathway that carbon takes as it is transferred from plant to animal to atmosphere to ocean and so on. There is no start or end point, but for purposes of explanation we will start with carbon in the atmosphere. Atmospheric carbon exists mainly as carbon dioxide, but also in the form of carbon monoxide or methane gas. There are also other minor gases in our atmosphere that contain carbon, but we shall lump all these gases together as atmospheric carbon.

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