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Photosynthesis: Math Lesson: Activity 3 of 3

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What happens to all the CO₂ that’s released into the air? Plants and phytoplankton absorb a lot of that CO₂ for photosynthesis, the process they use to make food for themselves. In photosynthesis, plants and phytoplankton “breathe in” CO₂ and breathe out oxygen (O₂).

Some of the carbon in CO₂ gets incorporated into the body of the plant. We can think of forests as big storage tanks of carbon. In fact, forests are the largest carbon sinks on land.

Human activities, such as burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests, release about 9 billion tons of carbon every year. Of that carbon, about 4 billion tons remain in the atmosphere, 2 billion tons dissolve in the ocean, and the rest is absorbed by carbon sinks on land such as forests.

How many tons of carbon are absorbed by carbon sinks on land each year?

tons
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