Material Detail

Take a tree through a year and watch when its leaves draw carbon dioxide from the air and when it goes back, beside Mauna Loa's average monthly swing. The plate shows how a leaf builds sugar from carbon dioxide and water, retells van Helmont's willow experiment to show that most of a tree's dry mass comes from the air, compares the yearly swing at Utqiagvik, Mauna Loa and the South Pole, and shows the long rise beneath it, from about 316 ppm in 1958 to more than 420 ppm now. It corrects the idea that plants grow by eating soil; molecules are drawn schematically and the seasonal curves are 2015 to 2024 averages.

One plate of Laplace's Mini World, a free, non-commercial collection of 130 interactive 3D models in English and Chinese. No account or ads. Text, pictures and models are CC BY-NC 4.0.

This will delete the comment from the database. This operation is not reversible. Are you sure you want to do it?

Thank you for reporting a broken "Go to Material" link in MERLOT to help us maintain a collection of valuable learning materials.

If you feel this material is inappropriate for the MERLOT Collection, please click SEND REPORT, and the MERLOT Team will investigate. Thank you!

You are being taken to the material on another site. This will open a new window.

Do not show me this again