Description
Create a thread and answer/discuss the following questions. Note: you will not be able to attach a file with your answers, but you may copy/paste your answers into the text box or type them directly. You must create a thread and complete your answers before you may access your classmates posts in order to provide responses.
Vast “swampy” forests covered the Earth during the Caboniferous period, 359-299 million years ago.
1) Describe the characteristics of these forests in terms of the dominant types of plants (be specific, particularly in relation to the groups discussed in Chapter 29), along with the physical characteristics of these forests including the “swampy” characteristics of the forest and the sizes of the plants.
2) What impact did these forests have on levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, oceans, and land (soils) at the time? How/why did this occur?
3) Based upon your answer to #2, describe how the Earth has served as a carbon sink since the Carboniferous period?
4) What processes, natural and artificial, have altered the carbon sink and what has been/will likely be results of this alteration to the atmosphere, oceans, and land (soils)?
