Compare and contrast the greenhouse effect and global warming.
Carbon dioxide, although making only about 0.03% of Earth's atmosphere, but plays a vital role in maintaining life.
Carbon-containing carbohydrates are produced in photosynthesis, which animal ingest when they eat other animals or plants. Plants and animals convert the carbohydrates to CO2-a waste product of cellular respiration.
Carbon dioxide may enter the atmosphere in two ways. Some of the dissolved CO2 was once in the form of calcium carbonate, and eventually the shells where the calcium carbonate was present, were converted to limestone. When the limestone was exposed to the atmosphere it weathered under rain and water, producing carbon dioxide. The CO2 was released into the atmosphere.
Another way CO2 enters in atmosphere is when animals and plants decompose carbon dioxide is released.
However, human activites may be disrupting this cycle.
There are several factors that are disrupting the atmosphere. The "greenhouse effect" involves greenhouse gases, the increase in these gases cause the Earth's temperature to rise; also known as global warming.
Greenhouse Effect
The natural warming of Earth's surface that occurs when certain gases in the atmosphere absorb some of the solar energy that is converted to heat and reflected on Earth's surface.
Global Warming
The condition of a rise in global temperatures due to an influx in greenhouse gases.
N2(g) + O2(g) --> 2NO(g)
Once NO is formed, it is oxidized to NO2.
2NO(g) + O2(g) --> 2NO2
In the atmosohere, rain converts NO2 to HNO3, which then falls to earth as aqueous NO3-.
2NO2(g) + H2O(l) --> HNO2(a) + HNO3(a)
Nitrogen fixation is also accomplished by bacteria, which live in soil and roots. Through the nitrogen-fixing bacteria, N2 is first reduced to NH3 and NH4+, then oxidized to NO3-.
Because animals cannot synthesize these complex molecules, they must get them by eating other plants or animals. Nitrogen that is unused is excerted as waste. Microorganisms in the soil convert the waste to N2 and the nitrogen cycle repeats yet again.
Nitrogen is a key element in protein molecules, nucleic acids and ATP. The cycle of Nitrogen will always be recycled.
Although nitrogen makes up 78% of Earth's atmosphere, most living things cannot use it as a gas--the nitrogen must first go through nitrogen fixation.
1. Describe two primary roots of nitrogen fixation.
2. How do greenhouse gases contribute to global warming?