After creating an ecosystem in a jar (see My Ecosystem in a Jar), one of the final products I had to complete was composing a narrative entailing transformations that could happen to a carbon atom within my ecosystem. The story needed to include processes such as photosynthesis, respiration, decomposition, consumption, defecation, and the water cycle. I also needed to use terms to describe any organisms that the carbon atom encountered, such as herbivore, autotroph, and detritivore. Below is the story I created, which has a carbon atom travel through a blade of grass, the atmosphere, a potato bug, and even underground. Please enjoy. 

 

The Life of a Carbon Atom

“W-w-where am I?” I stuttered, glancing from left to right.

Below me was a vast ecosystem, much different than the atmosphere of the science classroom I call home. Two gray creatures rested on a pine twig. A community of Poaceae* sprawled across the moist earth. Vibrant green vines grew from all directions. I turned to Bartholomew and Darwin, the two oxygen atoms I’d been bonded to for the past two months or so. They too had puzzled looks on their faces.

“Well gee,” said Darwin, “this sure ain’t the science classroom.”

“Obviously!” Bartholomew rolled his eyes. “It seems that we were captured in a glass jar of some sort.”

“You’re meanin’ to say we’re trapped in here?” Darwin asked.

Bartholomew nodded. “Indeed, and it’s all your fault!”

“My fault? None of this would’ve happened if you’d of just… ”

While Bartholomew and Darwin bickered back and forth, I noticed that we had drifted dangerously close to a large blade of grass. My heart began to beat faster as a stroma opened and we were pulled towards it.

“Umm, guys? I think we’re about to be inhaled.” I said, nervously.

Bartholomew and Darwin began to scream. As we traveled inside the grass, we were joined by several other molecules, who were also screaming. Using light energy, water, and our molecule of

CO₂, the Poaceae completed photosynthesis and transformed us. I was no longer part of a carbon dioxide molecule. Instead, I became glucose by bonding with twelve hydrogen atoms, six oxygen atoms, and five carbon atoms like myself.

We were eventually transported by phloem to the base of the grass blade’s stem, where our glucose molecule would be stored until energy was needed.

Later, one of the gray creatures that I had seen earlier started nibbling on the Poaceae. Upon further research, I discovered that the creature was an Armadillidium Vulgare**, a small terrestrial insect that can roll itself into a ball. It is classified as a heterotroph, specifically, an herbivorous one that consumes fruits, vegetables, fungi, and plant leaves.

The Aramadillidium inched closer and closer to the stem we were stored inside. Soon, it consumed the glucose molecule I was a part of. Carbon compounds were transferred from the Poaceae to the Armadillidium. The creature then used the process of cellular respiration to convert the energy stored in our glucose molecule to useable energy, known as ATP.

Sometime later, the Armadillidium passed away. It’s dead organic matter, which included me, eventually sank deep into the ground. A long segmented creature, I believed it to be a Lumbricus Terrestris***, squiggled towards us. As a detritivore and decomposer, it began to munch on the organic matter. I was broken down inside of the Lumbricus Terrestris and eventually defecated into the cold, wet soil.

One day, while I was still trapped in the soil, I noticed a small pocket of water. It looked like one of the oxygen molecules was trying to get my attention.Could that be…Darwin?

“Howdy! Been a long time no see!” the oxygen molecule said, floating in my direction.

Yep, definitely Darwin. As I chatted with my friend from the atmosphere, he rambled on about his journey through the water cycle. He had made it into a Hibernica, which was a producer and autotroph. Darwin was transpired into the atmosphere. He was condensed with other H₂O molecules into a water droplet on the side of the jar and then precipitated back to the bottom of the jar.

“And that’s how I got heeeeeerrrrreeeee-” Darwin managed to say before he had evaporated and floated back up to the surface.

“Until our paths meet again, old pal,” I said with a tear in my eye.

Someday I would make it to the surface, too. Someday, I would end up right back where I am now. I would never be free from the carbon cycle, and such is the life of a carbon atom.