| Overview |
| General background - market economy |
| General background - carbon trading |
| Brief notes on "comments on the Stern Review by leading economists" and links to them |
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| Overview |
| Basic science of Carbon including the carbon cycle |
| Photosynthesis & Respiration |
| Combustion - Energy production from carbon based fuels - the science |
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| Overview |
| Energy production from carbon based fuels (technology) |
| Alternative sources |
| Innovation and development |
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| Overview |
| Forest, Ice and Ocean |
| Land usage and impact on climate |
| Developing nations, including political aspects |
| Social change, population and industry |
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| Overview |
| Lesson plans, guides and pedagogy |
| Activities, tasks and assignments |
| Questions & Discussions |
| Software, Web 2.0 tools and data including images etc |
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| Glossary of terms, acronyms etc |
| Links to relevant sections in main National curriculum, GCSE and GCE syllabuses |
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| Photosynthesis
& Respiration In this section we focus on two complementary processes in plants. Photosynthesis which removes CO2 from the atmosphere and replaces it with O2; and respiration which does the reverse. Photosynthesis Using chlorophyll, plants and some algae and bacteria use sunlight energy to enable a reaction which combines carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) to form sugars or other carbohydrates which store energy and release oxygen (O2) as a product, back into the atmosphere. This is represented as an equation like the following based on a sugar e.g. glucose:  
Whilst land plants, and rainforests in particular might produce much of
the earth’s oxygen through photosynthesis, at least half is produced
by the same process in the tiny phytoplankton of the oceans.Respiration Plants and photosynthesising algae and bacteria use some of the carbohydrates they make to release energy for various functions, whilst the rest is used to increase their bulk (biomass), in a process chemically similar to burning. This reaction returns carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) to the atmosphere as well as releasing energy and can be represented by an equation like the following based on a sugar e.g. glucose:   Though the processes of respiration and photosynthesis appear to cancel each other out, the fact that some of the carbohydrate remains in the biomass of the plant means that the carbon in this enters other components of the earth system e.g. eaten by animals which decompose and eventually enter the geosphere in some form. Over millions of years, this has built up an imbalance with more oxygen being put into the atmosphere and less carbon dioxide. Some of this geospheric carbon ends up in rocks like limestone or in organic derivatives like coal, oil and gas. Plant respiration and certainly the impact of increased CO2 on it is arguably less well studied than photosynthesis; it is also often treated only in the context of photosynthesis and so there are far fewer useful resource links for it as a separate topic. We now know an enormous amount about the biochemistry of photosynthesis in terms of ATP, ADP, NAD, NADH & NADPH, the light and dark reactions (Calvin cycle) and photosystems I & II. More details can be found in the links. Even with our increased knowledge at the micro level, with human activity altering the balance of CO2 in the atmosphere further, we cannot be sure what the net result will be, since even at the macro level these interdependencies are so complex. For example, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere alters the temperature but how much CO2 dissolves in rivers or the sea also varies with temperature. The growth of plants varies with the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere but also with temperature etc. Recent research on respiration with higher levels of CO2 appears to be species dependent and not necessarily reduced! |
  Photosynthesis:
How Life Keeps goingPhotosynthesis:
comprehensive biobookPhotosynthesis:
wikipedia entryPhotosynthesis:
animation (SWF) Photosynthesis:
simplified detailsPhotosynthesis:
BBC Bitesize revisionPhotosynthesis:
internet resourcesPhotosynthesis
puzzle solvedPhotosynthesis
Berkeley webcastPhotosystems
I and II Imperial CollegeRelationship
between Photosystems I and II |
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