All elements and some compounds have their natural cycle in Nature for example the water cycle
Matter is cycled using energy usually from the sun
And in this video, we'll be considering the carbon cycle
We will see how photosynthesis and respiration
Help carbon to be cycled in nature again using energy from the sun
And we will also see the part played by mankind when we use fossil fuels
First of all the natural carbon cycle can you remember what the process is called where plants?
capture Carbon and give off oxygen
Pause the video whilst you think
Did you remember that this process is called?
Photosynthesis
The Carbon is used to build up new plant material
Animals eat the plants or other animals to build up their bodies to obtain energy for all these living processes
plants and animals take in [Oxygen] and
Rejoin it with the carbohydrates, so returning the carbon dioxide to the atmosphere
Do you remember what this process is called Pause the video?
This process is called respiration
now let's put some details into this as
They grow all living things have to build up large polymer molecules from small Molecules
Protein for example to make your skin and muscles and other organs comes from joining Amino acids together
cellulose and starch to make the leaves flowers
trunks roots and all parts of plants from Joining Sugars and
Dna to make the genes which control living things from the bases and the sugar and phosphate
plants can make these simple Molecules from the carbon they capture from
Photosynthesis with added elements from the Minerals they get from the soil
animals on the other hand get their molecules
Ready-made when they eat plants or other animals but first they have to break the food polymers back into the small molecules
Do you know what this process is called?
This is called Digestion
Breaking the food into little bits, so it can get into our blood all of this of course needs lots of energy
and living things get their energy from
respiration
some of the monomers things like sugar have to be rejoined with oxygen and
For us that is the principal use of the carbohydrates in our diet the carbon dioxide gets back into the food web through
photosynthesis
