Carbon Cycle Model

Use the Carbon Cycle Model to think about how carbon moves between different parts of our world.

1. What are the main places represented in the model?

2. What do the arrows show us? What do the colors mean?

3. Which processes are creating CO2 and putting it into the atmosphere? 

4. Which processes are taking it out of the atmosphere?

Get the Handout

1. Make a copy of the handout or get one from your teacher.

2. Use the handout to note the amount of gigatons of carbon (GtC) that each process moves in and out of the atmosphere each year.

• Ocean dissolution: 92 GtC

• Ocean outgassing: 90 GtC

• Photosynthesis: 121 GtC

• Plant respiration: 60 GtC

• Soil respiration: 60 GtC

• Combustion (and drilling for fuels): 10 GtC

3. Use what you know about how much carbon is going in and out of different places on Earth, and calculate how much carbon (in GtC) we would need to reduce from going into the atmosphere to rebalance the system. Use the table on your handout. 

   1. First, add up all the processes that put carbon into the atmosphere. 

   2. Then, add up all the processes that take it out. 

   3. Find the difference to figure out how much we need to reduce to balance the carbon processes.

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Credits

Climate Education Pathways