How Plant Growth Benefits the Carbon Cycle

Carbon is a chemical element found in great abundance in our universe. On Earth, it forms more compounds than all the other elements combined. Most importantly, carbon has been deemed “the element of life” and is fundamental to the existence of all known living things. 

How Is Carbon Produced?

Most of the carbon we encounter is in a gaseous state and is known as carbon dioxide (CO2). It is found in our atmosphere, yet only accounts for about 0.04 percent of the air we breathe. This is a good thing for us humans. For us, CO2 is a waste product that we breathe out and can do us harm if found in high concentrations in the air we breathe in. 

Most of the CO2 in our atmosphere is a result of respiration from animals, outgassing from the ocean, and the burning of fossil fuels as a source of energy. While rising levels of CO2 levels cause harm to humans, they can actually benefit plant life tremendously. 

What Is the Carbon Cycle?

In short, the carbon cycle is the process by which carbon is exchanged between land, air, and sea within our planet. 

Note the green arrow in the carbon cycle graphic above. What is it pointing to? 

Photosynthesis, a Life-Sustaining Process

Unlike humans and other animals, plants are designed to absorb CO2— in fact, they are entirely dependent on it. 

As can be seen above, plants use sunlight and CO2 to yield oxygen and useful sugars. In other words, plants are organisms that can take harmful levels of CO2 out of the atmosphere, and convert it into the oxygen that we need. 

Plants Help the Planet Whether Grown Indoors or Outdoors 

Regardless of whether you grow your plants in a portable grow tent with hydroponics equipment, a greenhouse, or outside in the soil, they still take existing CO2 and convert it into useful products and compounds for other living things. Thus, maintaining a grow room, kitchen garden, or crop field all allow nature to carry on with its life giving processes. 

At Monster Gardens, we are mostly invested in the science of indoor plant growth— a thing that can prove beneficial in a number of ways. If you are interested in creating an at-home environment that uses the carbon cycle to provide you natural returns, we are the experts you can turn to. Visit our online hydroponics store for all the materials you need to get started.