♥ Wednesday, January 28, 2009 ♥
Basically, we did the mindmap in groups and talked about carbon cycle today.
At first, we discussed and reorganised our mindmaps in groups. Forturnately, my group was chosen to present our mindmap to the class.Based on our own mindmaps, we have come up with a mindmap that combine the important points in our mindmaps, clearly presented by Alissa, evaluated by Li Qin, and was givin a quite high score.
Back to the topic, the question here is : How is atmosphere essential for life?
At first, when i do my mindmap, I just read through the notes given and copy all the useful points on a piece of full scap. But it looks like an essay, rather than a mindmap. However, after today's lesson, I realized that knowing the facts does not really answer and explain the question. What I should do is to think before I draw a mindmap. What do I know about the topic? Is it important enough to be in the mindmap? and so on and so forth.
Questions like this could help me organise ideas and give a clearer way of seeing the whole big picture.
Since, everyone must have known the concept and the mindmap very well, I would not go into that part further.
Something that is quite new to me is the carbon cycle part.So I'll try to describe it in my own words, hopefully, everyone could correct me if anything is wrong.
In the atmosphere, there is 0.03% of carbon dioxide, which is very little, comparing to other gases like nitrogen and oxgen. However, it is important since it's the basic material for plants to photosynthesize. Carbon dioxide is turned into sugar, mainly glucose and starch through the process of photosynthesis and stored in the plant. Animals will consume plant, use the sugar to provide energy to their body. After decomposition of animals' dead body, carbon will return to atmosphere. Besides, carbon also returns to atmosphere in the form of carbon dioixde as a product of animals' and plants' respiration.
If the dead plant or animal is not completely decomposed, they will turn into fossil fuels. In this way, carbon will be stored in the earth for quite a long time.
Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere also dissolves into the ocean, providing aquatic plants energy, and starts the carbon cycle in the ocean. A different way of carbon being stored in the ocean is that carbon is taken by oyster, forming the seashell. After the oyster died, the seashell will not decompose, in stead, it will become sediments and finally form the limestone--a kind of sedimentary rock.
It seems very easy to understand the carbon cycle with reference to the mindmap.And to understand everything in a system is easier than memorizing the facts.
Despite all of this, Mr Heah mentioned the regulatory force in the nature that keeps the carbon cycle balanced. Well, I have not figure out that yet. And still, I wonder if the earth was formed with the specific percentage （0.03%） of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. If it's not, was there a regulatory force? And what's the use of regulatory force if there's no consumption of carbon ( when there's no animals, or plants)？
Hope my question is answered soon.
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My opinion is:
When there was no consumption of carbon, there WAS no regulatory force, since there was nothing to provide one. Thus, the amount of carbon dioxide could have varied widely from today's levels. However, when life evolved, there became a need for a regulatory force. And I believe that the regulatory force is life itself. An abundance of carbon dioxide will probably result in more trees, as they can survive with and actually NEED the extra carbon dioxide in the air. Once the trees reduced carbon dioxide to around our current levels, animals evolved so as to provide more carbon dioxide to regulate the amount in the air. Thus, the carbon dioxide levels have remained constant - till we arrived...
Thanks for enduring through my explanation! Happy CNY!
Calvin
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OK, actually I have the same problem with you. I did not quite understand about the mind map so I just put all the related facts together and it is really messy. But after this lesson, I realised that mind map is a tool to help me simplify the knowledges and all I need to do is to find the key words. For instance, the essential words of the structure of atomosphere are oxygen, carbon dioxide, photosynthesis, respiration, greenhouse effect and so on. If we can those concepts, we will have a map in our mind. As for the question of the regulatory force, I agree with Calvin. As he said, the regulatory force is life itself. The existence of the force is due to the activities of living creatures.
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Should we also mention that within the carbom cycle,the burning of fossil fuel in human activities is another key point? Since carbon dioxide is produced during the burning of fossil fuel and then it returns to the atmosphere and continuesly join the cycle(: This process also help retain the cycle in a certain extent. However,nowadys,over-using of fossil fuel has already cause a serious problem. Too much carbom dioxide produced from burning tends to lead to the imbalance of the composition of atmosphere. Maybe it is a point we need to notice(: and..good job,yuan(:
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I agree with you that human activities are disturbing the carbon cycle from its equilibrium and hence, make our life ("the regulatory force") abnormal. We are actually suffering from the effects of the temperature rising up every year.
For the mind map, actually I found out that everything in that cycle can be connected in a certain way either more direct or less direct, and the mind map helps us to study easier. However, to have the "correct" mind map with adequate information for examination for everyone is a hard thing. Each person has his or her own process of thinking therefore, the mind map might alter with different people.
It's just my opinion. Btw, good job Yuan. I am just questioning the fact that you feel so "LUCKY" to be selected to present your mind map. j.k anw.
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Yeah, I didn't mention abt the impact of human activities on the cycle itself. And thanks to Lily to add that on.
For me, I do agree that the burning of fossil fuels is the main cause and cause the most effect on the carbon cycle. Besides, the carbon dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels is of great amount and it's the main cause of the green house effect.
Just to answer my own question, abt the regulatory force, that today, MR Heah mentioned abt the negative feedback system that we learnt in Bio. I thought that's a fantastic thing in the nature that helps to regulate the amount of carbon dioxide in the system. However, i felt that my question is not fully answered yet, for that when there's no human or life on this planet, what do this regulatory force do to the system? And furthure more, how is this negative feedback system formed? Is it somekind of gift from god? Also, what if the amount of CO2 is far out of the amount that the regulatory force can regulate? Is the green house effect the result of that? etc.
WOW, find myself so inquisitive. I shall find out the answers myself.
And thanks for the comments, guys!
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Negative feedback isn't a divine answer, it's simply a natural process. Like oxygen being highly reactive, water expanding when freezing, life starting, etc. Of course, if you're religious, carry on...
Anyway, extremes are usually bad, and this is no exception. Say there's a planet with 100% CO2 or something. If we seeded a plant or ten, they probably wouldn't survive, since they do not have enough oxygen to respire before they choke first. There MAY be bacteria to do so, but it'll take quite some time. For something less extreme, it'll recover, but will take quite some time. And we're not giving the planet enough time to recover from the H-bomb (H=Human) we blew up. That's why the greenhouse effect is intensifying. Give it enough time and the planet will roast till it's like Venus. In that case, the planet's dead. No recovery from that.
Speaking of Venus, that's Earth without life to regulate the temperature. Since the regulatory force is life (see above), no life means no regulation. Simple.
Finally, where the hell are the locals?! The 6 comments here are either me or the scholars. Wake up, people. And can we add a tag board, for more casual comments? And change the skin, Hello Kitty is killing everyone with the music...
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mindmaps are useful man. they really help to organise your thoughts and ideas. i love to use them for lots of stuff, from study, to planning events, to planning world domination (just joking la =P)
here's a tip! the next time you do a mindmap, pick out only the keywords, they prevent you from writing sentences, which is not meant to be in a mindmap anyway =P
im entirely blur about the regulatory forces
i do agree that life will play a part (still does) in regulating the atmosphere composition, and also tipping it over (think humans), like what Calvin said, increasing the amount of carbon dioxide by a lot
i mean, lets say before all the burning of fossil fuels
when humans were'nt so advanced
we released "x" dm3 of CO2
now with all the extra burning and all, we are releasing "x+y" dm3 of CO2
with y being really big
so the next question is, where does all the CO2 go? remain in the air for about 100 years? no wonder its so much hotter now.
this is like a post man, but i have stuff to say anyway.
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Hi Jon, nice to have someone else.
I don't really understand your chemistry stuff, but the carbon dioxide does remain in the air. It only goes away when the trees use it, when the oceans absorb it, etc. You didn't expect it to disappear into thin air... oops, you did! Either way, it has to go somewhere. In this case, into the atmosphere.
Also, mind maps ARE useful for world domination. You can use them to map links of topics. For example, on the topic nukes, you can put: "Expensive, effective, good killer, 5*s" and biological: "Slow, can spread, long-term use". Wahahaha...
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My opinion is:
When there was no consumption of carbon, there WAS no regulatory force, since there was nothing to provide one. Thus, the amount of carbon dioxide could have varied widely from today's levels. However, when life evolved, there became a need for a regulatory force. And I believe that the regulatory force is life itself. An abundance of carbon dioxide will probably result in more trees, as they can survive with and actually NEED the extra carbon dioxide in the air. Once the trees reduced carbon dioxide to around our current levels, animals evolved so as to provide more carbon dioxide to regulate the amount in the air. Thus, the carbon dioxide levels have remained constant - till we arrived...
Thanks for enduring through my explanation! Happy CNY!
Calvin