BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES
Cycles of Matter
Standard SC.912.E.7.1
• Analyze the movement of matter and energy through the different biogeochemical cycles, including water and carbon.
• Analyze the movement of matter and energy through the different biogeochemical cycles, including water and carbon.
The Water Cycle
The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle, describes the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth. It can be summarized in the following 7 steps:
- Evaporation:
- Transpiration:
- Condensation:
- Sublimation:
- Precipitation:
- Infiltration:
- Runoff:
The Carbon Cycle
What is carbon? Carbon is a chemical element that is essential to life on earth. It is in absolutely every living organism on the planet, as well as in the ocean, air, rocks and soil.
Video:
The carbon cycle - Nathaniel Manning
Video:
The carbon cycle - Nathaniel Manning
The Nitrogen cycle, refers to the circulation of nitrogen in various forms through nature. Nitrogen, a component of proteins and nucleic acids, is essential to life on Earth.
- Although 78 percent by volume of the atmosphere is nitrogen gas, this abundant reservoir exists in a form unusable by most organisms. Through a series of microbial transformations Nitrifying Bacteria, however, makes nitrogen is available to plants, which in turn ultimately sustain all animal life.
- Nitrogen is returned to the atmosphere by the activity of organisms known as decomposers. Some bacteria are decomposers and break down the complex nitrogen compounds in dead organisms and animal wastes. This returns simple nitrogen compounds to the soil where they can be used by plants to produce more nitrates.
- The steps, which are not sequential, fall into the following classifications: nitrogen fixation, nitrogen assimilation, ammonification, nitrification, and denitrification.
- In order to recycle nitrogen there must be bacteria at the beginning and at the end of the cycle.