Carbon is the basis of all organic matter on Earth, and is recycled through the ecosystem in two primary processes: one in which carbon is exchanged among living organisms, and one in which carbon is cycled over long periods of time through fossilized organic remains, weathering of rocks, and volcanic activity. Human activities, including increased agricultural practices and the burning of fossil fuels, has greatly affected the balance of the natural carbon cycle.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) transport in the blood is critical to human physiology. On average, our body cells produce around 200 mL of CO2 per minute, precisely the quantity expelled by the lungs. This process involves the transportation of CO2 from the tissue cells to the lungs in three primary forms.
Forms of CO2 Transport
1. Dissolved in plasma: A small percentage (7-10%) of CO2 is transported and dissolved directly in the plasma.
2. Carbaminohemoglobin: Just over 20% of CO2 is chemically bound to...

The most common elements in organic molecules, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus, are only available in the ecosystem in limited amounts. Therefore, these nutrients must be recycled through both biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem, in processes generally called biogeochemical cycles.

Ribulose 1,5- bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCo) is a critical enzyme that catalyzes carbon dioxide assimilation during photosynthesis. However, it is an inefficient enzyme, having an extremely slow catalytic rate. A typical enzyme can process about a thousand molecules per second; however, RuBisCo fixes only around three-carbon dioxides per second. Photosynthetic cells compensate for this slow rate by synthesizing very high amounts of RuBisCo, making it the most abundant single...