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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.

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

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) from the air.


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The gas that is taken from the air and converted to glucose in photosynthesis is carbon dioxide (CO2). Through the process of photosynthesis, plants use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen.


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.


Carbon dioxide and nitrogen?

Fairly unreactive gases. Air with the oxygen taken out.


What is taken in from the air by the tree?

maybe oxygen because it releases carbon dioxide


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.


What system exchanges oxygen and carbon dioxide with the air?

The respiratory system exchanges oxygen and carbon dioxide with the air through the process of breathing. Oxygen is taken in through the lungs and carbon dioxide is expelled during exhalation. The exchange occurs in the alveoli, which are tiny air sacs in the lungs.


Which organs are oxygen and carbon dioxide changed?

In the lungs, oxygen from the air is taken up by red blood cells and carbon dioxide is released from the blood into the air when we exhale. This exchange of gases occurs in the alveoli, which are tiny air sacs in the lungs.


Where in our breathing system does the changes of oxygen and carbon dioxide dioxide happen?

The exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide occurs in the alveoli of the lungs. Oxygen is taken up from the air into the bloodstream, and carbon dioxide is released from the bloodstream into the air in the alveoli during respiration.


What does exhaled air contain more of than inhaled air?

More Oxygen, because some of it is processed into Carbon Dioxide (CO2).