§-Quick questions
WAEarth and Environmental ScienceUnit 3: Managing Earth resources
Quick questions on The carbon cycle: reservoirs and fluxes: WACE Year 12 Earth and Environmental Science
3short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What are carbon reservoirs?Show answer
A reservoir is a store of carbon. The major ones differ enormously in size and turnover time.
What are carbon fluxes?Show answer
A flux is a transfer of carbon between reservoirs.
What is the blue carbon angle?Show answer
Western Australian coastal ecosystems are significant carbon sinks. Seagrass meadows in Shark Bay, mangroves and tidal saltmarshes capture carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and bury it in waterlogged, oxygen-poor sediments where decomposition is slow, locking it away as blue carbon for centuries to millennia. Disturbing these systems, by dredging or coastal development, both stops the ongoing sink and can release previously buried carbon, converting a sink into a source. This links the carbon cycle directly to ecosystem services and to management decisions in Unit 3.
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