Essay
Assess the role of oceans in regulating the carbon cycle.
- Institution
- AQA
This is a high quality 20 mark essay written by an A* student about the role of oceans in regulating the carbon cycle.
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Assess the role of oceans in regulating the carbon cycle [20 marks]Oceans play a huge role in regulating the carbon cycle, as they are able to sequester carbon
at a large scale. However, this role is being diminished over time, due to humans exploiting
fossil fuels and increasing global temperatures. Therefore human activity is having a huge
impact on the oceans role in regulating the carbon cycle.
30% of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere has diffused into oceans. This creates carbonic
acid, increasing the acidity of the oceans, in a process called ocean acidification. Higher
acidity causes a chemical reaction which means that the oceans can hold more carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere. As a result, oceans play a significant role in reducing the
amount of carbon dioxide held in the atmosphere and therefore reducing global warming.
However, as the population is increasing, carbon dioxide emissions are too. As a result, the
Earth is still impacted by global warming and so ocean temperatures a re rising. Diffusion
from the atmosphere to the oceans is higher when oceans are cooler as they can hold more
carbon. As a result, global warming is having a big impact on the ability that oceans have on
sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, as warmer oceans can’t hold as much
CO2.
The oceans biological carbon pump also plays a role in regulating the global carbon cycle.
Carbon dioxide gets into organisms as organic matter. When the die, their shells and other
remains sink into deep waters. Their decay releases CO2 into deep water. The material that
sinks to the bottom creates a carbon rich sediment, which can turn into rocks and be used as
fossil fuels after millions of years due to the high pressure. This stores carbon deep in the
oceans, reducing the amount of the gas in the atmosphere and therefore minimising the
effects of global warming if this carbon were to remain in the atmosphere. However, humans
extracting fossil fuels for energy means that oceans now store less carbon and more of this
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