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5 Biogeochemical Cycles: Water or Hydrologic Cycle

The document summarizes 5 major biogeochemical cycles: the water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur cycles. Each cycle describes the movement of a chemical element or molecule through biotic and abiotic environmental compartments, driven by biological, geological, and chemical processes. The cycles are constantly repeated and allow organisms to utilize important elements and molecules while they circulate between living things, soil/rock, oceans, and the atmosphere.

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62 views3 pages

5 Biogeochemical Cycles: Water or Hydrologic Cycle

The document summarizes 5 major biogeochemical cycles: the water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur cycles. Each cycle describes the movement of a chemical element or molecule through biotic and abiotic environmental compartments, driven by biological, geological, and chemical processes. The cycles are constantly repeated and allow organisms to utilize important elements and molecules while they circulate between living things, soil/rock, oceans, and the atmosphere.

Uploaded by

NN
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Biogeochemical Cycles

Pathways by which a chemical substance moves through both biotic (biosphere) and abiotic
(lithosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere) compartments of Earth. A cycle is a series of change
which comes back to the starting points and can be repeated
 Biogeochemical tells us that biological, geological and chemical factors are involved

5 Biogeochemical Cycles:

 Water or Hydrologic Cycle cycle of evaporation and condensation that controls


distribution of the earth’s water as it evaporated from bodies of water, condenses,
precipitates and returns to those bodies of water
- Water changes state between liquid, solid and gas
- Evaporation: Water changes from liquid to gas (water vapors)
- Condensation: Water vapor condenses to form dew, fog or clouds. Takes place due to
cooling of water droplets in atmosphere.
- Precipitation: Water becomes too heavy in clouds and falls back into water bodies or on
land
- Interception: Interruption in the movement of water in the chain of transportation events
leading to streams
- Infiltration: The physical process involving movement of water through the boundary
area where atmosphere interfaces with the soil. Infiltrated water and water stored in the
soil can become subsurface runoff
- +subsurface runoff: the remaining water traveling underground
- Percolation: Movement of water through the soil, due to gravity and capillary action
- +capillary action: the attraction of water molecules to soil molecules, moves
groundwater from wet areas of soil to dry areas
- Transpiration: biological process where water in plants is transferred to the atmosphere
as water vapor, only small portion of water is retained in plants
- Runoff: flow from a drainage basin in surface streams, generally consists of the flow that
is unaffected by artificial diversion or storages
- Storage: Three basic water storage places: the atmosphere, on earth’s surface and in the
ground. Surface storages takes place in oceans, lakes, reservoirs, glaciers etc.
Underground storage occurs in soil, cracks of rocks, etc.
- Floods & Droughts: Uneven distribution and movement of water can cause floods and
droughts

 Carbon Cycle the combined processes, including photosynthesis, decomposition and


respiration by which carbons as a component of various compounds cycle between its
major reservoirs—the atmosphere, oceans and living organisms
- Carbon moves from the atmosphere to plants, from plants to animals and then to the
ground
- Photosynthesis: Plants, algae and cyanobacteria remove carbon dioxide from the air and
incorporate it into complex organic compounds like glucose
- +incorporates: carbon from the abiotic into the biological compounds of producers
- Decomposition, Animal & Plant Respiration, Soil Microorganism Respiration:
compounds are used as fuel for cellular respiration by the producer that made them, by a
consumer that eats producer or by a decomposer that breaks down the remains of the
producer or consumer
- +cellular respiration: returns carbon dioxide to the atmosphere
- Partly decomposed plant remains (coal): coal beds formed millions of years ago from
the bodies of ancient trees that were buried and subjected to anaerobic conditions before
fully decaying
- +anaerobic: lacks free oxygen but may contain oxygen bound compounds like nitrate
(NO3), nitrite (NO2), and sulfites (SO3)
- Marine Plankton Remains: Oils of unicellular marine organisms likely gave rise to the
underground deposits of oil and natural gas that accumulated in the geologic past
- +coal, oil and natural gas: called fossil fuels because they formed from the remains of
ancient organisms. They are non-renewable, and the Earth has a finite supply of these
resources.
- Combustion (Human & Natural): Process of burning or combustion may return the
carbon in oil, coal, natural gas and wood to the atmosphere. Organic molecules are
rapidly oxidized (combined with oxygen) and converted to carbon dioxide and water with
an accompanying release of light and heat
- Burial and Compaction to form Rock (Limestone): A greater amount of carbon that is
stored for millions of years is incorporated into the shells of marine organisms. When
these organisms die, their shells sink to the ocean floor and sediments cover them,
cementing together to form limestone
- Erosion of Limestone to form Dissolved CO2: When the process of geologic uplift
exposes limestone, chemical and physical weathering processes slowly erode it away.
This returns carbon to the water and atmosphere where it is available to participate in the
carbon cycle again.

 Nitrogen Cycle continuous sequence of natural processes by which nitrogen in the


atmosphere and nitrogenous compounds in the soil are converted into substances that
can be utilized by green plants and then returned to the air and soil as a result of
denitrification and plant decay
- Nitrogen Fixation: The process in which atmospheric nitrogen (N2) is the atmosphere
breaks down and combines with other compounds.
- Ammonification: After all living organisms have used the organic nitrogen decomposer
bacteria convert the nitrogen into ammonia
- Nitrification: The process that converts ammonia (NH3) into nitrites (NO2) and nitrates
(NO3) which most plants can use
- Denitrification: Process in which nitrogen compounds convert back into atmospheric
nitrogen. Main process is performed by bacteria in soil, and can also happen by burning
fossil fuels

 Phosphorus Cycle process in which phosphorus travels from its main source of rocks
through ecosystems to living organisms
- Reservoir: erosion transfers phosphorus to water and soil; sediments and rocks that
accumulate on ocean floors return to the surface as a result of uplifting by geological
processes
- Assimilation: plants absorb inorganic phosphate from soils; animals obtain organic
phosphorus
- Release: plants and animals release phosphorus when they decompose; animals excrete
phosphorus in their waste products
-

 Sulfur Cycle natural cycle which includes the mineralization of organic sulfur to
sulfide, and reproduction of this to sulfide followed by microbial incorporation of this
into organic compounds
- Hydrogen Sulfide: released into atmosphere from volcanic eruptions, fossil fuel burning,
and anaerobic decay of sulfur containing biological material
- Wind carries sulfuric acid and ammonium salts: which fall to the earth in the form of
precipitation
- Plants get sulfur by: taking up ions of sulfate salt from the soil
- Animals get sulfur by: eating plants and all living things release sulfur compounds when
they decay
- Decomposition: releases sulfate salts, which can be taken up by plants as well as gaseous
hydrogen sulfide
- Some hydrogen sulfide enters the atmosphere but when decay occurs in an oxygen-
free environment, anaerobic bacteria breaks down hydrogen sulfide and release
sulfur gas
- Remaining Sulfur: Is lost in the oceans depths, combining with iron to form ferrous
sulfide which is responsible for the black color of most marine sediments

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