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carbon cycle The biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged between the biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth. carbon diet The act of reducing the output of CO 2 to reduce impact on the environment. carbon dioxide carbon footprint The total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an organization, event or product.
For example, assuming a constant amount of vegetation on the planet, burning wood will add carbon to the atmosphere in the short term but this carbon will cycle back into new plant growth. carbon pool – a storage reservoir of carbon. carbon sink – any carbon storage system that causes a net removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
The absorption patterns of water vapor (blue peaks) and carbon dioxide (pink peaks) overlap in some wavelengths. [ 33 ] Water vapor is the most important greenhouse gas overall, being responsible for 41–67% of the greenhouse effect, [ 31 ] [ 32 ] but its global concentrations are not directly affected by human activity.
This ability to avoid photorespiration makes these plants more hardy than other plants in dry and hot environments, wherein stomata are closed and internal carbon dioxide levels are low. Under these conditions, photorespiration does occur in C 4 plants, but at a much lower level compared with C 3 plants in the same conditions.
A runaway greenhouse effect involving carbon dioxide and water vapor has for many years been hypothesized to have occurred on Venus; [91] this idea is still largely accepted. [92] The planet Venus experienced a runaway greenhouse effect, resulting in an atmosphere which is 96% carbon dioxide , and a surface atmospheric pressure roughly the same ...
A shift towards plant-based diets would help to mitigate climate change. [112] In particular, reducing meat consumption would help to reduce methane emissions. [113] If high-income nations switched to a plant-based diet, vast amounts of land used for animal agriculture could be allowed to return to their natural state.
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These include the amount of light available, the amount of leaf area a plant has to capture light (shading by other plants is a major limitation of photosynthesis), the rate at which carbon dioxide can be supplied to the chloroplasts to support photosynthesis, the availability of water, and the availability of suitable temperatures for carrying ...