Kosfeld Fenna Thesis - Flipbook - Page 37
Role of Carbon and importance of Carbon Cycling
“You will die, but the carbon will not; its career does not end with
you. It will return to the soil, and there a plant may take it up
again in time, sending it once more on a cycle of plant and animal
life” - Jacob Bronowski.
Everyone is talking about carbon in times of climate change and
extreme environmental and atmospheric imbalance. Carbon
emissions and climate change are often portrayed as adversaries
in the quest for a sustainable future. However, carbon itself is not
the enemy; it is an essential component of our atmosphere and
a critical element in the carbon-nutrient cycle that sustains life
on Earth. The carbon-nutrient cycle involves the biochemical
movement of carbon through the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, soil,
and living organisms, facilitating vital processes such as photosynthesis, respiration, and nutrient uptake. Understanding this
cycle is crucial as it highlights the natural balance of carbon in
our environment and underscores the importance of managing
carbon emissions responsibly. By viewing carbon as a fundamental part of our ecological system rather than merely a pollutant,
we can better appreciate its role in fostering life and work towards
solutions that harmonize human activities with the Earth’s natural
processes.
Everything on this planet and let’s even go further, in this
universe, is cyclical. Even if things appear linear or isolated,
it is just a form of perception, because in the end all life
feeds on each other and the ecological interconnection is an
ever-evolving cycling process.
The carbo-nutrient cycle can be divided into “rapid carbon
exchange among living organisms and the other dealing
with the long-term cycling of carbon through geologic processes” ( Ha).
There are three macro-nutrient-cycles
Carbon
Nitrogen
Phosphorous
Plants acquire carbon through photosynthesis and nitrogen and phosphorus as mineral nutrients from the soil. All
those cycles are interconnected and intertwined, yet we talk
primarily about carbon and the consequences of high emissions on our environment in contemporary conversation.
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/nutrient-cycling/
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