The document discusses several nutrient or biogeochemical cycles. [1] The water cycle involves evaporation, precipitation, and transpiration to circulate the earth's fixed water supply. [2] The carbon cycle relies on photosynthesis and respiration to circulate carbon between the biosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. Human activities like burning fossil fuels and deforestation alter the carbon cycle. [3] The nitrogen cycle converts atmospheric nitrogen to forms plants can use via nitrogen fixation and back again via denitrification. Human activities have increased the use of nitrogen fertilizers, altering the nitrogen cycle.
The document discusses several nutrient or biogeochemical cycles. [1] The water cycle involves evaporation, precipitation, and transpiration to circulate the earth's fixed water supply. [2] The carbon cycle relies on photosynthesis and respiration to circulate carbon between the biosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. Human activities like burning fossil fuels and deforestation alter the carbon cycle. [3] The nitrogen cycle converts atmospheric nitrogen to forms plants can use via nitrogen fixation and back again via denitrification. Human activities have increased the use of nitrogen fertilizers, altering the nitrogen cycle.
The document discusses several nutrient or biogeochemical cycles. [1] The water cycle involves evaporation, precipitation, and transpiration to circulate the earth's fixed water supply. [2] The carbon cycle relies on photosynthesis and respiration to circulate carbon between the biosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. Human activities like burning fossil fuels and deforestation alter the carbon cycle. [3] The nitrogen cycle converts atmospheric nitrogen to forms plants can use via nitrogen fixation and back again via denitrification. Human activities have increased the use of nitrogen fertilizers, altering the nitrogen cycle.
The document discusses several nutrient or biogeochemical cycles. [1] The water cycle involves evaporation, precipitation, and transpiration to circulate the earth's fixed water supply. [2] The carbon cycle relies on photosynthesis and respiration to circulate carbon between the biosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. Human activities like burning fossil fuels and deforestation alter the carbon cycle. [3] The nitrogen cycle converts atmospheric nitrogen to forms plants can use via nitrogen fixation and back again via denitrification. Human activities have increased the use of nitrogen fertilizers, altering the nitrogen cycle.
Macronutrients: The elements needed in large amounts are known as
‘macronutrients’ (O2, N2, C, Ca, Mg, P).
Micronutrients: The elements needed in small amounts are called
‘micronutrients’ (B, Co, Sr, Zn and Cu)
Both of these micronutrients and macronutrients are generally called
‘Biogenic salts’. 98 What are Nutrient or Biogeochemical Cycles? Nutrient or Biogeochemical Cycles: The cyclic flow of nutrients between the biotic (living organisms within ecosystems, as well as in the biosphere) and abiotic (air, water, soil, rock) components. Nutrient cycles connect past, present and future forms of life.
Reservoirs: As nutrients move through their biogeochemical cycles, they may accumulate in certain portions of the cycles and remain there for different periods of time. These temporary storage sites such as the atmosphere, the oceans and other water bodies of water and underground deposits are called reservoirs.
Cycle Types: Hydrologic (water), carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous and sulphur cycles. Nutrient or Biogeochemical Cycles
➢ Water cycle Effect of ➢ Carbon Cycle Human activity on these cycles ➢ Nitrogen cycle
➢ phosphorous
➢ sulphur cycles 1. Water cycle The hydrological/water cycle collects, purifies and distributes the earth’s fixed supply of water.
•Powered by energy from the sun and involves 3
major processes
Evaporation: Incoming solar energy causes
evaporation of water from the Earth’s oceans, lakes, rivers and soil.
Precipitation: Gravity draws the water back to the
earth’s surface as precipitation (rain, snow)
Transpiration: 90 % of the water that is precipitated
evaporates back into the atmosphere from the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaDkph9yQBs surfaces of plants (through a process called transpiration) and from the soil. 2. Carbon Cycle • Carbon is the basic building block of the carbohydrates, fats, proteins, DNA and other organic compounds necessary for life.
• The carbon cycle is based on CO2 gas (0.039 % of volume of the earth’s atmosphere), and it is dissolved in water.
CO2 is a key component of the atmosphere’s thermostat.
• If the carbon cycle removes too much CO2 from the atmosphere, the atmosphere will cool.
• If the carbon cycle generates too much CO2, the atmosphere will get warmer. Terrestrial Producers remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Aquatic Producers remove CO2 from the water. Consumers and decomposers carry out aerobic respiration. This process breaks down glucose, and other complex organic compounds to produce CO2 in the atmosphere and water for reuse by producers. Linkage between photosynthesis in producers and aerobic respiration in consumers and decomposers circulates carbon in the biosphere.
Effect of Human Activities on Carbon Cycle
We are altering the Carbon Cycle by adding large amount of CO2 to the atmosphere by burning carbon-containing fossil fuels and clear carbon-absorbing vegetation from forests, especially tropical forests. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgEZpX3n5mo 106 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1SgmFa0r04 3. Nitrogen cycle N2 gas makes up 78 % volume of the atmosphere. Nitrogen - is a crucial component of proteins, many vitamins and nucleic acids such as DNA. N2 cannot be absorbed and used directly as a nutrient by multicellular plants/animals.
Two natural processes convert/fix N2 into nutrients which can be used by plants and animals. 1. Electrical discharge/lightning taking place in the atmosphere. 2. In aquatic systems - in soil, and in the roots of some plants, nitrogen fixing bacteria completes this conversion as part of nitrogen cycle.
microbes Ammonia – Plants (Mineral acids) also different pathways – In dry condition act as poison Nitrogen cycle consists of several major steps (Nitrogen fixation) Specialized bacteria in soil as well as blue green algae (cyanobacteria) in aquatic environment combine gaseous N2 with hydrogen to make ammonia (NH3).
The bacteria use some of the NH3 as nutrient and excrete the rest into the soil / water.
Some of the NH3 is converted to ammonium ions (NH4+) – plants can use as a nutrient.
Plants and animals return nitrogen –rich organic compounds to the environments through wastes and cast-off particles of tissues such as leaves, skin or hair and through their bodies when they die. and are decomposed or eaten by detritus feeders.
In ammonification, specialized decomposing bacteria converts this detritus into simpler nitrogen containing inorganic compounds such as NH3 and water soluble salts containing ammonium ions NH4+.
In de-nitrification, specialized bacteria in waterlogged soil and in the bottom sediments of lakes, oceans convert NH3 and NH4+ back into nitrate ions (NO3-), and then into N2 gas. These gases released to the atmosphere to begin the nitrogen cycle again. 112 Explain with a help of a diagram and the effect of human activities on nitrogen cycle
Human activities have more than doubled the annual release of N2 from the land into the rest of the environment through the greatly increased use of inorganic fertilizers (straight type: ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) and binary type: diammonium phosphate (DAP, (NH4)2HPO4)) to grow crops.
