GENERAL BIOLOGY (BIO101)

TOPIC: BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES

A biogeochemical cycle is the cycling pathway by which chemical elements
required by life 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 starting point and which can be
repeated. The term “biogeochemical” tells us that biological, geological and
chemical factors are involved. The plants and animals that live and then die are the
bio part; the earth (soil) that they decompose into comprises the geo part; and the
process by which organic matter returns to the chemical elements in the earth is
explained by chemical part. These chemical nutrients include Carbon, Oxygen,
Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Sulphur and Water.
These elements cycle in either a water cycle, gas cycle or a sedimentary cycle.
In a gas cycle, elements move through the atmosphere. In a sedimentary cycle
(weathering of existing rock), elements move from land to water to sediment.
Carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle and oxygen cycle are examples of Gas cycle whereas
phosphorous cycle and sulphur cycle are examples of Sedimentary cycle.

1. Water Cycle (Hydrologic Cycle)

Water is indispensible for life and it can be said that it is the “matrix of life”. It is
component part of all living tissue. 60% - 90% of the organisms’ body weight is
due to water. It remains incorporated in biomolecules of the body. It also acts as
solvent for many organic and inorganic components. It is required for
thermoregulation, for transportation of molecules and in hydrolytic digestion of
nutrients. The water cycle, also known as hydrologic cycle or the H2O cycle
describes continuous movements of water on, above and through the Earth via the
land, atmosphere and oceans. The water cycle figures significantly in the
maintenance of life and ecosystems.
Distribution of water:
Water covers 71% of Earth’s surface. On earth 96.5% of total water is found in
oceans and seas, 1.7% as groundwater, 1.7% in glaciers and in the ice caps at polar
region. A small fraction is found in other large water bodies and 0.001% in the air
as vapor, clouds and precipitation.

Water Cycling:
The three major steps of water cycle are precipitation, evaporation and
condensation. In this regard there are two types of water cycles.
1. Global water cycle
2. Biological water cycle
1. Global water cycle:
The sun, which drives the water cycle, heats water in oceans, seas, lakes rivers etc.,
and eventually water precipitates on both lithosphere and hydrosphere. Every year
4.46 × 1020gm water precipitates on the earth. Of this amount 0.99 × 1020 gm falls
on land and 3.24 × 1020 gm falls on ocean surface. Evaporated water from the
hydrosphere forms cloud. Clouds blow over the land and sea as rain, snow, hail
and sleet. Some water content of the rain percolate through soil. Natural springs,
manmade wells and pumps brings ground water to surface water. Again by
evaporation and precipitation, cycle gets repeated.
A major part of water is locked up in earth’s crust and it is only released in small
quantities during volcanic eruptions. Same way, the large store in polar ice caps
has little effect same way, the large store in polar ice caps has little effect on
hydrological cycle due to negligible evaporation from them.

2. Biological water cycle:

In terrestrial ecosystem, source of water for autotrophs is underground water.
Roots of plant absorb this water from soil and use it in different physiological
processes. In aquatic life, plants and animals get water from aquatic body in which
they live. In terrestrial ecosystem, animals get water from water reservoirs like
rivers, ponds, lakes, etc. whereas humans get water from rivers and from ground
water by making tube wells and pumps.
Plants return water to environment by transpiration. Animals and mammals return
water to air by perspiration, urination and excretion.
These vaporized water from plants and animals precipitate eventually.
Thus, in these ways biological water cycle remains operating.
2. Carbon
Carbon is considered as building block of life as it is main component of biological
compounds and many minerals. Carbon is the best for joining of elements to form
compounds necessary for life such as sugar, starch, fats and proteins. The Carbon
cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the
biosphere, pedosphere (involve in soil formation), geosphere, hydrosphere and
atmosphere of earth.

Sources of Carbon:
The major source of carbon is the atmospheric CO 2, CO2 dissolved in water bodies
of the earth and methane. Atmosphere contains 700 × 10 9 metric tonnes of CO2
while water contains 35000 × 109 metric tonnes of CO2. On an average, there is
about 6 tonnes of carbon as CO2 over each acre of earth.

Movement of carbon in the ecosystem:

Photosynthesis and respiration are the two main biological processes, which
count for biological cycling of CO2 in the atmosphere.
Photosynthesis: All green plants, algae and phytoplankton’s are able to carry out
photosynthesis. In this complex process, after series of chemical reactions, simple
sugar such as glucose is produced. Oxygen is produced as by-product.

The process of photosynthesis can be summarized as:

CO2 + H2O + Radiant energy -----> C6H12O6 + O2

The simple sugar is then converted to other biomolecules such as starch, fat,
protein,
cellulose etc. by different complex biochemical pathways. So it can be said that all
the “matter “of the plant ultimately is produced as a result of photosynthesis.

Respiration: The process of eating and being eaten transfers carbon from plant to
successive trophic levels in food chain. Carbon in the form of different
biomolecules get stored in animals and some amount of these biomolecules are
utilized for cellular respiration and rest of it again count for biomass which may be
consumed by animals of next trophic level in food chain.
The process can be summarized as follows:
O2 + Carbohydrate -----> Energy + Water + CO2
In addition to this, decomposing micro-organisms break down dead material which
releases carbon that goes back to carbon cycle.
Some amount of carbon returns to environment in form of methane (CH4) .

Cycling of the carbon from fossil fuels:

The direct emissions from burning fossil fuels transfer carbon from geosphere to
atmosphere. Under certain conditions, dead tissue may undergo partial
decomposition. This causes formation of coal from plants and formation of natural
gases and petroleum from marine organisms. Coal, natural gas and petroleum when
burnt in automobiles, factories and powerhouses produce CO 2 that is added to
atmosphere. Carbon tied up in fossilized organisms remains out of circulation for
thousands of years.

Fate of carbon dioxide in oceans and seas:

Oceans contain the largest quantity of actively cycled carbon in the world. Carbon
dioxide and other atmospheric gases dissolve in surface water. Dissolved gases are
in equilibrium with the gases in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide in atmosphere
reacts with water to form weak acid that is carbonic acid.

H2O + CO2 ˂-----> H2CO3 (Carbonic acid)

H2CO3 ˂-----> H+ (Hydrogen ion) + HCO3- (Bicarbonate ion)
HCO3- ˂-----> H+ + CO3- (Carbonate ion)

The carbonic acid causes weathering of rocks. As rocks get eroded, the clay ion
like Ca++, Mg++ and carbon in form of HCO3- gets liberated from rocks. Sea
animals that have calcium carbonate shell like clay, clam, cowry etc. possess
ability to create shell from these dissolved ions in seawater.

The reaction can be summarized as:

2HCO3 + Ca++ -----> CaCO3 + H2O + CO2
Thus CO2 and H2O unite to form H2CO3 and thus cycling goes on and on. When
organisms die their shells get accumulated as the limestone. Some of this carbon is
returned to atmosphere via metamorphosis of this limestone due to heat and
pressure in the deep region of the sea. Thus carbon dioxide is liberated from the
limestone.
The recycling of carbon is essentially a self-regulating mechanism.
3. Nitrogen Cycle
Nitrogen is one of the very important elements on earth as it is a component of
amino acids, proteins, vitamins, DNA, RNA, etc. Earth’s atmosphere contains
around 78% nitrogen. However, plants and animals cannot use it directly in its
elemental form from the atmosphere. This elemental form of nitrogen is used by
plants only after it gets converted into inorganic nitrogen containing compounds
like nitrites (NO2 -), nitrates (NO3-), ammonia (NH4+), nitrous oxide (N2O), nitric
oxide (NO) or inorganic nitrogen (N2).
These conversions are done by various kinds of bacteria and other micro-
organisms. Thus, the nitrogen cycle is the process by which nitrogen is converted
to its various chemical forms by biological and physical process.
Nitrogen cycle consists of various steps:
 Nitrogen fixation
 Nitrogen assimilation
 Ammonification
  Nitrification
 Denitrification
 Sedimentation
A. Nitrogen fixation: Nitrogen fixation is the process by which free nitrogen of
atmosphere is converted into biologically available form of nitrogen.
There are four ways for nitrogen fixation,
i. Physiochemical fixation- during lightning and at the time of electric discharge
in clouds, the nitrogen of atmosphere combines with oxygen and produces
different kinds of nitrogen oxides. These oxides of nitrogen get dissolved in water
to form nitrates and other nitrogenous compounds.
This can be summarized as shown here,
N2 + O2 -----> 2NO
2NO + O2 -----> 2NO2
2NO2 + H2O -----> HNO2 + HNO3
3NO2 + H2O -----> 2HNO3 + NO

HNO2 – Nitrous acid, HNO3 – Nitric acid, 2NO – Nitric Oxide (11)
ii. Biological nitrogen fixation- In this kind of fixation atmospheric nitrogen gets
converted into nitrites and nitrates by free-living bacteria, symbiotic bacteria and
by blue green algae.
Free living bacteria such as Azobacter, Clostridium etc. fix nitrogen of atmosphere
in the soil by combining the gaseous nitrogen of atmosphere with the hydrogen that
is obtained from respiratory pathway to form ammonia.
Symbiotic bacteria like Rhizobium living in the root nodules of legumes cannot fix
the nitrogen solely. These bacteria invade the roots or leaves and stimulate the
formation of root nodules or leaf nodules, which are kind of harmless over growth
of cells as a ‘tumour’. The union of these bacteria and nodule cells are able to fix
the atmospheric nitrogen under low oxygen condition and nitrogenase enzyme
reduces nitrogen to ammonia.
Certain species of lichens also have nitrogen-fixing ability.

iii. Industrial N-fixation- Under great pressure, at a temperature of 600°C, an iron

catalyst, hydrogen and atmospheric nitrogen combine to form ammonia (NH3).
4. Combustion of fossil fuels- Automobile engines and thermal power plants
release various nitrogen oxides (NOX).

B. Nitrogen assimilation: Inorganic nitrogen in form of nitrites, nitrates and

ammonia is taken up by plants from soil. Plants utilize these inorganic nitrogenous
compounds to produce organic nitrogenous compound like amino acids, proteins,
enzymes, nucleic acid, chlorophyll etc. Animal consumes plants and thus they get
nitrogenous organic compound in their body.

C. Ammonification: The dead organic remains of plants and animals as well as

excreta of animals are decomposed by number of microorganisms that convert the
organic nitrogen into ammonia. In decomposition, protein, urea, uric acid etc. of
animals get converted into the ammonia in the presence of ammonifying bacteria
such as Bacillus ramosas, Bacillus vulgaris and Bacillus mycoides.
D. Nitrification: In this step ammonia, which was produced in previous step, get
converted into nitrite and nitrates. Nitromonas and Nitococus bacteria carry out
conversion of ammonia to nitrites.
The equation of this reaction is 2NH3 + O2 ---> Nitromonas,

Nitococus -----> 2NO2 + 2H+ + 2H2O + Energy

Conversion of nitrites to nitrate is brought about by bacteria like Nitrobacter and

Penicillium (a fungus).
2NO2 + O2 ----> Nitrobacter -----> 2NO3 - + Energy

E. Denitrification: In this step, denitrifying bacteria like Pseudomonas,

Micrococus
denitrificans, Thiobacillus denitrificans etc. converts ammonia, nitrites and nitrate
into molecular nitrogen.

F. Sedimentation: Nitrates present in soil sometimes gets locked up in the rocks.

This is called the sedimentation of nitrogen. During weathering nitrates is released
by conversion into nitrogen.
Thus nitrogen is fixed by microbes. Fixed nitrogen is absorbed by plants via food
chain.
Organic nitrogen enters into consumers and all dead remains is acted upon by
decomposer and again nitrogen gets back to atmosphere in its molecular form.
In this way nitrogen cycle keeps on operating in cyclic manner.

3. Phosphorous Cycle
Phosphorous is a major constituent of life sustaining biomolecules, biological
membranes, energy rich compounds (ATP) and nucleic acids. In addition, many
animals also need large quantities of this element to make shells, bones,
exoskeleton and teeth. It also functions as a buffering agent in maintaining acid
base homeostasis in human body.
The phosphorous cycle describes the movement of phosphorous through
lithosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere. It is a sedimentary cycle. The forms of
phosphorous most readily accessed by plant are orthophosphate ions H2PO4- and
HPO42-.
Sources of Phosphorous:
Phosphorus is not abundant in the biosphere, whereas a bulk quantity of
phosphorus is present in rock deposits, marine sediments and guano (excrete
materials from seabirds used as manure for plant).
Due to rains and weathering, phosphates from rocks leach to soil. Much of the
leached phosphate from soil runs off to ocean due to rain and soil erosion and thus
makes phosphorous pool in the ocean.
Fate of phosphorous in soil and ocean:
In soil, phosphates reacts with iron oxide, aluminum hydroxides, clay surface,
organic particles and become incorporated.

The phosphorous pool of soil is in four different forms, which are,

1. Inorganic phosphorous available directly for plant.
2. Organic phosphorous which is not available to plant directly.
3. Adsorbed phosphorous which is phosphate bound chemically with soil particles
(unavailable to plants readily).
4. Mineralized phosphorous (unavailable to plants readily).

Mineralization and Immobilization:

Mineralization is conversion of organic phosphorous in the soil to inorganic
phosphate by microbial activity while immobilization is the reverse of
mineralization (that is, they are converted back to organic forms). Slow desorption
over a long period of time makes little adsorbed phosphorous available for plants.
Primary mineral phosphorous like iron phosphate and mineral phosphate become
plant available phosphate due to weathering. Certain microbes and symbiotic fungi
at plant roots create acidic condition due to which phosphorous gets available to
plant from its minerals.

Water Runoff and Soil Erosion:

Water carries away dissolved phosphorous from applied manure and fertilizers as
well as particulate (soil bound) phosphorous, which gets trapped in sedimentary
rocks. Soil erosion control decreases phosphorous losses by slowing water flow
over soil surface and increasing infiltration.
 Phosphorous cycling between biotic and abiotic components:
Plants absorb phosphorous from soil and via food chain it becomes integral part of
different trophic level consumers. Both producers and consumer’s dies and
decomposition of both submit phosphorous back to soil. Similarly, in the ocean
phosphorous from water is passed to phytoplanktons to zooplanktons and from
zooplanktons to fishes via food chain.
Excreta and death of marine organisms return phosphorous to water. Small amount
of phosphorous is returned to lithosphere from ocean by marine birds’ excreta
known as ‘Guano’, which contains plenty of, phosphorous.
The deposited sediment of phosphorous remains out of circulation and makes cycle
imperfect.