Carbon cycle and carbon sinks.

Imagine in the earth, the carbon atom is being reused for thousand of years to make up grass, then eaten by a cow becoming the cow's fat, then humans eat the cow, so that carbon becomes our fat, then we die so the carbon returns to the soil which becomes the nutrient to the grass and then eaten by a cow again.

That was an illustrated example of the carbon cycle in my opinion.

Why do people care so much about carbon anyways?



Well this is because carbon is an important component of organic molecules and the energy holding the chemical bonds represents an energy storage (Cunningham et al. 2007)

From my text book, They say that the cycle begins with the intake of CO2 by photosynthetic organism (meaning green plants). Then the carbon is used to make sugar molecules. The CO2 released during respiration will close the cycle.

Currently the knowledge of the carbon cycle is important because the biological accumulation and the release of carbon is a major factor in climate regulation.

Carbon atoms trapped under the soil for many years are called carbon sinks. The common carbon sinks are deep oceans floor, trapped in the petroleum and coal. So burning coal and oil releases these trapped carbon, increasing the concentration of carbon in our atmosphere. Carbon are also largely stored as calcium carbonate forming coral reefs so it is crucial to protect the coral reefs. Ocean acidification is one of the threat to the coral reefs because an increase in acidity of the ocean will start to dissolve the coral reef bit by bit releasing the carbon.

According to my lecturer, peat swamps are also major carbons sinks. They are usually located in tropical jungles. Peat swamps are like a hole in the land filled with stagnant water and layers of fallen leaves but they decompose at a really slow rate due to the acidity of the peat swamps. Very little decomposing bacteria can be present at that kind of condition. So the carbon which is used to make the leaves would not be released into the air or water , stuck in the leaves until it starts to degrade.

However in Malaysia, people are not aware of the crucial role it has. So these peat swaps are drained so that the land can be used for development. When the peat swamps are drained, the leaves start to decompose because the acidity of the peat swamps cannot be contained. So it is one of the reasons of increased carbon content in the atmosphere.