In the carbon cycle, carbon is transferred from animals to decomposers in all of the following ways except a) as waste. b) in dead carcasses. c) as carbon dioxide. d) in scraps of discarded food.

Option (C)

Explanation:

The carbon cycle is usually defined as the cyclic process by which the carbon is transferred from the atmosphere to the consumers and also to the hydrosphere and again back to the atmosphere.

The carbon is often transferred from the animals to the decomposers. After the death of an organism, the decomposers eat up the decaying death matter and doing so it takes up some amount of carbon into them and during the process of respiration, they again give out that carbon back into the atmosphere. They are mostly transferred as waste materials, like dead bodies, and also as the discarded food.

But they are not transferred in the form of carbon dioxide gas, because carbon dioxide is released only during the respiration process.

Thus, the correct answer is option (C).