answersLogoWhite

0

How is carbon taken out the air?

Updated: 8/9/2023
User Avatar

Wiki User

11y ago

Best Answer

Some of it is absorbed by sea water, where it reacts with water to form carbonic acid, decreasing the ocean pH.

In general, tree leaves and grass pull CO2 out of the air in the spring and summer months, and release it in the fall as they die. We have been able to measure and monitor this seasonal cycle since the 1950s. (See link).

In ages past vast amounts of carbon dioxide was pulled from the atmosphere by various organisms. During the Permian, 300 million years ago, trees and vegetation that died toppled into the watery muck where they did not fully decay. The carbon taken up by these plants remained buried, eventually turning into vast coal and oil deposits.

At other times small marine organisms would take up carbon in their shells, forming huge limestone deposits, eventually sequestering billions of tons of atmospheric carbon. During the cretaceous calcareous coccolithophores gradually settled out of ocean water forming deep chalk deposits. Much of this activity ended with the conclusion of the cretaceous, the name of which comes from the Greek word "creta" for "chalk."

Fifty million years ago an arctic freshwater fern known as "Azolla" proliferated over the polar ocean surface. As the ferns died they sank to the sea floor, where they did not decay. The build up of dead fern mass pulled billions more tons of carbon out of the atmosphere, cooling the earth enough to precipitate a long series of ice ages.

Today we are pumping CO2 into the atmosphere much faster than the earth can adjust. This may not seem reasonable, as the earth is large--its diameter is nearly 8000 miles. But we have been puffing over 30 billion tons of CO2 into the air every year, and this steady increase is beginning to have not just measurable but noticeable impact. In 1900 CO2 was 290 ppm. By 1950 it had risen to 300. Today it is nearly 400, and it will exceed 500 ppm before 2050.

User Avatar

Wiki User

11y ago
This answer is:
User Avatar
More answers
User Avatar

Wiki User

14y ago

Yes by growing plants, bushes, trees and forests:

1.Trees

2.Grass

3.Ornamental rose bushes cut in to shape of a hedgehog.

This answer is:
User Avatar

User Avatar

Wiki User

9y ago

Carbon is removed through photosynthesis, carbon dioxide is used and oxygen is released.

This answer is:
User Avatar

Add your answer:

Earn +20 pts
Q: How is carbon taken out the air?
Write your answer...
Submit
Still have questions?
magnify glass
imp
Continue Learning about Earth Science

How does carbon dioxide get into the ecosystem?

Carbon dioxide is in the air we exhale. Cars and factories also release carbon dioxide which pollutes the air. It depends which ecosystem. It is primarily taken up by the ocean and terrestrial ecosystems. In the latter, this is primarily through photosynthesis.


What role does the oceans play in the carbon cycle?

Oceans are able to absorb maximum amount of CO2 from air . then this absorbed CO2 is taken by plant inside Ocean. by this way oceans are helpful in carbon cycle.


What form is carbon in when released into the air?

Carbon most commonly enters the air as a gas: carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds, or carbon monoxide, but it can also exist in the air as a solid (soot) for long periods of time. Carbon is an element in a solid form. When it released in air, it remains in the same form. If it is burnt in air then it released carbon dioxide & carbon mono oxide.


What does the increase of carbon dioxide in the air mean?

It means that there is more carbon dioxide (unbreathable air) gets in to are air


Summarize the carbon cycle starting and ending with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.?

The carbon cycle is a process where carbon is removed and returned to the atmosphere. The ways of returning carbon to the atmosphere are- 1. Respiration 2. Decomposition 3. Combustion Ways of removing carbon- Photosynthesis. The CO2 in the air is taken in by green plants for photosynthesis. The green plants die eventually and is decomposed; decomposition return carbon to the atmosphere. Animals respire and return carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Decomposers respire as well. Green plants can be used to make fuels, which combust to return carbon dioxide to the air.

Related questions

What is the source of the carbon in the sugars made by plant's?

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) from the air.


What is the gas that is taken from the air and converted to glucose in photosynthesis?

The gas that is taken from the air by the plants is carbon dioxide.


The important cycle in nature that depends on photosynthesis is the?

The Carbon Cycle. Carbon is taken from Carbon Dioxide in the air to stored as sugar in the plant.


How can you get oxygen from plants?

Plants taken in the air we breath as carbon dioxide and release it back into the air as oxygen.


What is taken in from the air by the tree?

maybe oxygen because it releases carbon dioxide


Carbon dioxide and nitrogen?

Fairly unreactive gases. Air with the oxygen taken out.


Why does the air you exhale contain carbon dioxide and moisture?

because carbon dioxide and water from the cells are waste carried by the blood to the lungs to be taken out of the body


What is the product of humans?

Oxygen is extracted, by the lungs, from the air taken in, and carbon dioxide is released from them. So, there are really two products - oxygen and carbon dioxide.


Where does air go after you breath it in?

It's taken into the lungs, where the alveoli absorb oxygen and expel carbon dioxide. When you breathe out, the carbon dioxide dissipates into the atmophere.


How does carbon dioxide get into the ecosystem?

Carbon dioxide is in the air we exhale. Cars and factories also release carbon dioxide which pollutes the air. It depends which ecosystem. It is primarily taken up by the ocean and terrestrial ecosystems. In the latter, this is primarily through photosynthesis.


What evidence shows that a chemical reaction has taken place when you burn coal?

when you burn coal, it burns thecoal and the oxygen in the air and forms carbon dioxide. carbon + oxygen -> carbon dioxide


What is the difference between lung and lung capacity?

Lungs are organs which hold air taken in by the mouth and then released into the heart to combine with the blood to provide oxygen throughout the body. When you exhale you breath out carbon dioxide into the air. Lung capacity is the amount of air taken in by the lungs and then released into the air.