Your text must speak about the carbon cycle, ie all the forms that carbon can have (CO2, living organisms, fossils ...)
Terrestrial plants store atmospheric carbon through the primary production process and will only return a portion of it. The vegetation will then send this carbon to the soil in the form of dead organic matter. Most of this carbon is then returned to the atmosphere by the processes of respiration and decomposition in soils.
Exchange between living beings and the atmosphere is estimated at 60 gigatonnes per year. This exchange is a two-way process: while fermentation, respiration of bacteria, animals and plants release CO2, photosynthesis of chlorophyll plants fixes carbon in organic matter or biomass.
The oceans take more carbon from the atmosphere than they give back to it, so they are considered carbon sinks. A transfer of carbon is made between the different compartments by the rivers and rivers.
Climatic phenomena and erosion perpetuate the carbon exchange between rocks on the surface of the earth and in the oceans. Carbon dives under the mantle of the earth during a so-called subduction process - while volcanoes, baths and geysers release carbon dioxide and methane back into the atmosphere.
The geological phases of the carbon cycle - climate phenomena, erosion, subduction and fossil fuel formation - occur over a period of millions of years. The biological phases of the carbon cycle - photosynthesis, respiration, decomposition by microbes - can occur over a period of days to thousands of years.
