Biogeochemical Cycles Webquest

Biogeochemical Cycles WebQuest

Directions: Visit the following websites and answer the related questions. Your goal is to gain a better understanding of the water and carbon and cycles.

Background: In biogeochemical cycles (including carbon, water and nitrogen cycles), elements are transported between the atmosphere, biosphere (living things), hydrosphere (water), and geosphere (rocks, minerals, and soils). These cycles help us remember that Earth is a complex system.

To access each link à Hold down control & Click on the web address.

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Water Cycle: https://mpt.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/dce5a696-4f0c-47c5-a2ba-5e517c779089/water-cycle-animation/

Directions: Watch & listen to the series of animations to answer the following question.

1.  What is evaporation?

2.  What is condensation? How are clouds formed?

3.  What is precipitation?

4.  What is runoff?

5.  What is infiltration? What is groundwater?

6.  What factors affect how much infiltration can occur?

7.  Increased ______and ______dries out the ground leaving ______water to move to the atmosphere, fewer clouds and less precipitation, which can lead to ______.

8.  What causes sea levels to rise?

Carbon Cycle:

Go to http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/Water/co2_cycle.html and answer these questions:

1.  How does carbon exist in the atmosphere?

2.  How are fossil fuels created?

3.  Describe two ways that carbon enters the atmosphere.

4.  How are the oceans involved in the carbon cycle?

5.  How is the temperature of the Earth partly controlled by carbon?

6.  What role do rocks have within the carbon cycle?

Go to http://www.windows.ucar.edu/earth/climate/carbon_cycle.html to play the carbon cycle game. You are a carbon atom!

7.  Where are you starting within the carbon cycle?

“Click to begin your journey”

8.  How much of the atmosphere is made of carbon dioxide (CO2)?

9.  By how much has CO2 increased in the atmosphere during the past 150 years?

As you work through this game, take some notes about where you go as a carbon atom. Make sure you visit all reservoirs!

10. Next stop = ______

What did you learn?

11. Next stop = ______

What did you learn?

12. Next stop = ______

What did you learn?

13. Next stop = ______

What did you learn?

14. Next stop = ______

What did you learn?

The Roots of the Carbon Cycle:

https://mpt.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/b1943ed9-9781-4d75-872f-ee5b26fe28a6/the-roots-of-the-carbon-cycle/

1.  What factors contribute to the rate at which carbon moves between the soil and the atmosphere?

2.  Currently, there is ______as much organic carbon in our ______than our ______of Earth.

3.  As plants grow, what do they absorb and what do they store?

4.  How does carbon become part of the soil?

5.  What is another way carbon becomes part of the soil?

6.  What is in the soil that releases gaseous carbon back into the atmosphere?

7.  What contributes to the higher rates of decomposition of plants and animals?

8.  Different soil conditions affect the carbon cycle in different ways. What are the 3 ways? Explore & explain each one. Next: There are 18 different combinations of scenes.