This animation show where and when photosynthesis happens around the world as the seasons come and go. The land in the Northern Hemisphere gets greener each spring and summer, an indication of high rates of photosynthesis, and yellow during autumn as most plants become dormant and the amount of photosynthesis decreases. In tropical rainforest areas, plants live and photosynthesize all year long.
SeaWiFS Project
The Earth's Biosphere
The biosphere includes all living things on our planet – the life on land and in the oceans - plants, animals, fungi, protists with only one cell, and even little bacteria.
Other than water, the most common thing in the bodies of living things is an element called carbon. There are so many living things on the planet that if you added up all the carbon in all of their bodies, cells, trunks, stems, and leaves it would be heavier than 116 billion school buses!
The biosphere can impact the Earth’s climate. This is because the biosphere can change the amount of greenhouse gases that are in the air of our atmosphere. When plants make their food by doing photosynthesis, oxygen is put into the air and carbon dioxide greenhouse gas is taken out of the air. When plants and animals respire, carbon dioxide is put to the air and oxygen is taken out of the air. Microbes that live in soils can add nitrous oxide, another type of greenhouse gas, to the air. When people burn fossil fuels, forests, and fields, greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere too.
Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store!
Traveling Nitrogen is a fun group game appropriate for the classroom. Players follow nitrogen atoms through living and nonliving parts of the nitrogen cycle. For grades 5-9.
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