BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES

Transcribed by: Fria Joy Cipriano

I. CARBON
Carbon is an element that is vital to most living organisms on earth, it is also a key
component of our atmosphere. It can cycle through our earth, the ocean, living factors, abiotic
factors, and the air.

• FIVE MAJOR LOCATIONS

The carbon recycles among five major locations, these items include,

(1) the atmosphere,

(2) the terrestrial biosphere or land,
(3) the earth's interior,
(4) the ocean, and
(5) human influence.

• Carbon is found in the atmosphere in at least two forms; (1) carbon dioxide, and (2)
methane. This atmospheric carbon can be absorbed by autotrophs like plants and
plankton to be used for photosynthesis.

• It can also be absorbed by bodies of water and the ocean. When carbon is absorbed
by the ocean it reacts with the water and creates carbonic acid.

• The terrestrial biosphere, which is another term for the earth's land, has several paths
of carbon that it can take. First there is an exchange between plants and animals.
Plants absorb carbon in the form of carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and animals
release carbon dioxide during cellular respiration.

• Also, heterotrophs eat plants that contain carbon. Animals also release carbon as
methane during digestion and the soil contains decomposers that release carbon into
the atmosphere and the soil carbon is also stored in the earth's interior.

• Carbon in the lithosphere includes fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas, along
with deposits like limestone and volcanoes may release some of this carbon stored in
the lithosphere when they erupt.

• The ocean has the greatest exchange quantity of cycled carbon and stores a large
amount of carbon. It absorbs carbon in the form of carbon dioxide. The ocean also
has many plankton that absorbs carbon dioxide that it uses for photosynthesis.

• Humans also influence the movement of carbon. Humans burn fossil fuel which
releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Also, the production of clinker, which is
used for cement from limestone, also releases carbon. In addition, deforestation from
humans can cause the amount of carbon in the atmosphere to increase.
 • What do we drink today is the same water enjoyed by dinosaurs a long time ago this
is because the water cycle helps keep water going round and round.

9 Steps in the Hydrologic Cycle/Water Cycle

(1) evaporation - occurs when a liquid turns to gas.

(2) condensation - when evaporation cools and attaches to small particles in the
atmosphere and clouds may form.
(3) precipitation - rain
(4) transpiration - comes from the leaves and the stems of the plant. When it releases
it, plants do not use all the water that it absorbs from its roots, it releases some in
the form of vapor.
(5) infiltration - when water moves down through rocks and sand etc.
(6) groundwater - his water that moves into the ground.
(7) aquifer - which is represented by the sponge made of rocks.
(8) runoff and, - the ground will not absorb all the precipitation, and some will run
off, like this pan that is filled with rocks and soil.
(9) Accumulation – a runoff that may end up in a lake or an ocean.

II. NITROGEN CYCLE

Our atmosphere is made up of 78% nitrogen. We need the nitrogen for our DNA and
for proteins, but we just can't breathe in the nitrogen like oxygen, we must absorb our
nitrogen in our food.

• Nitrogen follows a cycle where it travels from the atmosphere to the soil, to animals and back
and in a cycle.
• Nitrogen in the atmosphere falls to the earth by precipitation, such as rain or snow.
• Once in the soil, it finds its way to bacteria on the root of plants. At the roots the nitrogen is
combined with hydrogen to make ammonia in a process called nitrogen fixation. Lightening
in the atmosphere can also do this.
• Ammonia is toxic so additional bacteria combines this ammonia with oxygen in a process
called nitrification. At this point, the nitrogen is in a form called nitrite.
• Nitrifying bacteria convert this nitrite to nitrate. At this point, plants can absorb this nitrogen
in a process called assimilation.
• However, not all the nitrate is absorbed but some of it goes to the bacteria that release the
nitrogen to the atmosphere in a process called denitrifying, then the nitrogen returns to the
atmosphere. Once in the animal after it eats the plants the animal either dies or needs to get
rid of waste.
• Another type of bacteria then takes this, along with decomposers, and breaks this nitrogen
either in the waste or the dead animal by a process called ammonification, the nitrogen can
enter the cycle once again at nitrification and the cycle continues.
III. OXYGEN CYCLE

Involves the movement of oxygen between biotic, which are living factors, and
abiotic, which are non-living factors. The oxygen cycle maintains the level of oxygen in our
atmosphere. Processes within this cycle are considered either a source oxygen production or a
sink which involves oxygen consumption.

• The largest reservoir of the earth's oxygen is found in the lithosphere. Silicate and
oxide minerals of the crust and metal make up large portions of the lithosphere and
contain oxygen.
• The atmosphere is made up of roughly 21 oxygen.
• The hydrosphere which is the water on earth is 33 oxygen by volume.
• The biosphere which is the sum of all ecosystems is 22 oxygen and is found mainly
in organic molecules.

• CYCLE

✓ Plants along with phytoplankton and other organisms that carry out
photosynthesis release oxygen into the atmosphere, in fact, marine plants produce
most of the oxygen in our atmosphere.
✓ Animals, some bacteria, some protists, and other organisms that carry out cellular
respiration use oxygen to create atp and they release co2.
✓ Sunlight produces some oxygen when sunlight reacts with water vapor in the
atmosphere.
✓ Decomposition, which is the breakdown of once living organisms, uses oxygen
and releases carbon dioxide. Microbes use oxygen to break down the organisms.
✓ Rusting or oxidation involves oxygen to create the rust on many metals.

IV. PHOSPORUS CYCLE

Phosphorus is an essential nutrient for living organisms it's a building block of

nucleic acids like DNA and a phosphor lipid that form our cell membranes it's also
essential for plant growth.

• In the natural world, phosphorus is never encountered in its pure form but
only as phosphates which consist of a phosphorus atom bonded to four oxygen
atoms.
• Phosphate compounds are found in sedimentary rocks and as the rocks
weather and wear down over long time periods the phosphorus they contain
slowly leeches into the surface water and soils.
• Volcanic ash and fertilizer can also be significant phosphate sources.
• Phosphate compounds in the soil can be taken up by plants and from there
they are transferred to animals that eat the plants. When plants and animals
 excrete waste or die phosphates may be taken up by ditravores, an example of
worm, or returned to the soil.
• Phosphorus containing compounds may also be carried in surface runoff to
rivers lakes and oceans where they are taken up by aquatic organisms like
phytoplankton.
• When phosphorus containing compounds from the bodies or wastes of marine
organisms sink to the floor of the ocean, they form new sedimentary layers
over long periods of time.
• Phosphorus containing sedimentary rock may be moved from the ocean to the
land and then the cycle repeats however this process is very slow.
• Phosphorus can be a limiting factor for an ecosystem most fertilizers contain
phosphorus which may be carried to aquatic ecosystems in surface runoff.
• Fertilizer carried in runoff may cause excessive growth of algae or microbes
that were previously limited by the phosphorus, this phenomenon is called,
eutrophication.
• When all the excess algae die and are decomposed by microbes’ large
amounts of oxygen are used up as their bodies are broken down. This increase
in oxygen use and usage can sharply lower dissolved oxygen levels in the
water and may lead to death of aquatic organisms.
• Regions of lakes and oceans that are pleated of oxygen due to a nutrient influx
are called dead zones.
• Fertilizer runoff from the Mississippi river basin created a dead zone of over 8 000
square miles off the coast of Mexico.

V. SULFUR CYCLE

All living things require sulfur to make protein. Sulfur reserves are found in
the lithosphere and are released by weathering.

• Hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide gas is released into the atmosphere by
volcanic eruptions, hot springs, and the decay of biological material in
swamps and bogs.
• Marine algae produce dimethyl sulfide that enters the atmosphere as tiny
droplets.
• Sulfur dioxide gas also forms when dimethyl sulfide reacts with oxygen gas.
• The burning of fossil fuels also releases sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere.
• Sulfur dioxide reacts with oxygen in the atmosphere and creates sulfur
trioxide.
• Sulfur trioxide reacts with water in the atmosphere to produce sulfuric acid.
• Sulfur trioxide also reacts with the ammonia in the atmosphere to produce
sulfate salts.
• The sulfuric acid and sulfate salts fall to the earth by precipitation like rainfall.
• The soil absorbs this sulfate salts. Plants then absorb the sulfur by absorbing
the sulfate salts from the soil. Animals in turn get sulfur by eating the plants
 and release sulfur when they decay. As animals’ decay, they release sulfate
salts and hydrogen sulfide.
• Anaerobic bacteria break down the hydrogen sulfide into sulfur gas.
• Aerobic bacteria convert the sulfur into sulfate salts which again the plants
absorb.