You are viewing a free preview of this lesson.
Subscribe to unlock all 10 lessons in this course and every other course on LearningBro.
The global carbon cycle has been profoundly altered by human activity since the Industrial Revolution (c. 1750). This lesson examines the key human-induced changes to carbon stores and flows, including fossil fuel combustion, deforestation, agriculture, and land-use change. It also considers natural drivers of carbon cycle change and evaluates the evidence for anthropogenic climate change. Understanding these changes — and their cascading effects on the water cycle and broader Earth system — is a central requirement of the AQA A-Level specification.
Before the Industrial Revolution, the carbon cycle was in approximate dynamic equilibrium: natural sources of CO₂ (respiration, decomposition, volcanic outgassing, ocean degassing) were broadly balanced by natural sinks (photosynthesis, ocean absorption, weathering, sediment burial).
Key indicators of pre-industrial equilibrium:
Subscribe to continue reading
Get full access to this lesson and all 10 lessons in this course.