Carbon is essential for life on Earth, forming the basis of our biology and economies, but its use is linked to the pressing issue of global climate change. The carbon cycle describes how carbon is recycled through processes such as respiration, combustion, photosynthesis, and decomposition, ultimately returning carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. This cycle involves various roles including producers, consumers, and decomposers, each contributing to the movement and transformation of carbon.

4. • Carbon is the backbone of life on Earth.
• We are made of carbon, we eat carbon,
and our civilizations—our economies,
our homes, our means of transport—are
built on carbon.
• We need carbon.
But that need is also entwined with one
of the most serious problems facing us
today: global climate change.

5. • Most of the chemicals that make up living tissue
contain carbon.
• When organisms die the carbon is recycled so
that it can be used by future generations.
• The model that describes the processes involved
is called the carbon cycle.

6. How Does It Work
???

7.  Carbon enters the atmosphere as carbon
dioxide from respiration and combustion.

8.  Carbon dioxide is absorbed by producers to
make carbohydrates in photosynthesis.

9.  Animals feed on the plant passing the carbon compounds
along the food chain. Most of the carbon they consume is
exhaled as carbon dioxide formed during respiration. The
animals and plants eventually die.

10.  The dead organisms are eaten by decomposers and the
carbon in their bodies is returned to the atmosphere as
carbon dioxide. In some conditions decomposition
is blocked. The plant and animal material may then be
available as fossil fuel in the future for combustion.

18. • What is a fossil fuel?
• How is carbon dioxide returned to the
atmosphere?
• What function do plants have in the
forest in the carbon cycle?
• What is the role of a Decomposer? Give
an example.
• What is the role of a Secondary
Consumer? Give an example.
• What is the role of a Primary producer?
Give an example.
• After leaves decompose, what may
happen to the carbon in them?