Biogeochemical cycles

ENV 107
Environmental Science
Summer 2018
Faculty: HMd

Class Note 3

Dr. Mahmud
 Learning Objectives
• Over the next class we will explore chemical
elements required by all living things and how
these elements become available via
biogeochemical cycles. At the end, you should
be able to:
– List what the required elements are.
– List what the major biogeochemical cycles are.
– Discuss the major processes that control the rate and
efficiency of biogeochemical cycles.
– Discuss how the earth spheres are involved and
linked to biogeochemical cycles.
– Discuss how humans affect these cycles.

Dr. Mahmud
Required Chemical Elements
• All living things are made up of chemical
element. They are either
– Macronutrients
• required in large amounts by all life or
– Micronutrients
• Elements required either in
– small amounts by all life or
– moderate amounts by some forms of life and not all by
others
– Limiting factor
• When chemical elements are not available at the
right times, in the right amounts, and in the right
concentrations relative to each other
Dr. Mahmud
 Macronutrients
• Includes the six most important essential
elements, known as “Big Six” that comprise
the majority of atoms in living things are:
– Carbon (C)
– Hydrogen (H)
– Oxygen (O)
– Nitrogen (N)
– Phosphorus (P)
– Sulfur (S)

Dr. Mahmud
 Macronutrients
• C= basic building block of organic
compounds.
– O+H+C=carbohydrate.
– N+C+O+H= proteins.
• P= energy element occurring in the
compounds called Adenosine Tri-
Phosphate (ATP) and ADP.

Dr. Mahmud
 Natural Environment
• Subdivided into two parts:
– the physical environment (nonliving
matter) and
– the biological environment, which includes
all life forms (biosphere).

Dr. Mahmud
 Physical (Geo) Environment
•The physical environment is divided into three
spheres, which have evolved together over the
course of Earth’s history on the basis of states of
matter:

•The lithosphere (solid)

•The hydrosphere (liquid)
•The atmosphere (gas)

Spheres of the environment.

Dr. Mahmud
McKinney et al. Chpt 3
 Geologic Cycles
• The processes that are responsible for
formation and change of earth materials
are referred to as the geologic cycles.
• These are:
– Tectonic cycle,
– Hydrologic cycle,
– Rock cycle, and
– Biogeochemical cycle.

Dr. Mahmud
 Biogeochemical Cycle
• The complete path a chemical takes
through the four major components – or
reservoirs – of Earth’s systems
1. Atmosphere (air)
2. Hydrosphere (water)
3. Lithosphere (rocks, soil)
4. Biosphere (life)

Dr. Mahmud
 Biogeochemical Cycle
A generalized cycling of a chemical in an ecosystem.

Dr. Mahmud © 2008 John Wiley and Sons Publishers

 Basic Concept of
Biogeochemical Cycle
• An ecosystem is a community of different
species and their nonliving environment.
• Chemical cycling in an ecosystem begins with
inputs from outside.
– Chemical inputs to an ecosystem are from the
atmosphere via rain and dust.
– From adjoining land via stream flow and subsurface
water runoff.
– Ocean and fresh water ecosystems have the same
atmospheric and land inputs and also have inputs
from the ocean currents, and submarine vents
especially at divergent plate boundaries.

Dr. Mahmud
 Basic Concept of Biogeochemical
Cycle (Cont.)
• Chemical elements cycle internally from the non-living parts (air,
water, organic soil) of the local environment to the different species
through food chain.
• Living organisms release some chemical elements directly.
OR
• With the death of individual organisms, decomposition returns
chemical elements to inorganic parts of the ecosystem.

Dr. Mahmud
 Basic Concept of Biogeochemical
Cycle (Cont.)
• An ecosystem can export chemical elements
outside the system to other ecosystems.
• An ecosystem that has little loss of chemical
elements can function in its current condition for
longer periods than leaky ecosystem (that loses
chemical elements rapidly).
• All ecosystems require some external inputs of
chemical elements.

Dr. Mahmud
 Basic Concept of Biogeochemical
Cycle (Cont.)
• General concepts of biogeochemical cycles
– Some chemical elements cycle quickly and are readily
regenerated for biological activity. Oxygen and nitrogen.
– Biogeochemical cycles that include a gas phase and are
stored in the atmosphere tend to cycle rapidly.
– Other chemical elements are easily tied up in relatively
immobile forms and are returned only slowly.
– Altered biogeochemical cycles result in a changed planet in
many ways (in the development of fertile organic soils that
agriculture depends upon).
– The continuation of processes that control biogeochemical
cycles is essential to the long term maintenance of life on
earth.
– The developments and use of modern technology began to
alter the chemical elements among the air, waters, and
soils.

Dr. Mahmud
Ecosystem Cycles of a Metal and
a Nonmetal
• Elements have different pathway, such as
pathway for calcium (typical of a metal) or for
sulfur (typical of a nonmetallic element).
• Calcium cycle
– Calcium, like most metals does not form a gas on
earth’s surface, and therefore has no major phase in
the atmosphere. It occurs only as a compound in dust
particles.
– Calcium, in its inorganic form, is highly soluble in
water and is readily lost from a land ecosystem in
water transport.

Dr. Mahmud
Ecosystem Cycles of a Metal and
a Nonmetal
• Sulfur Cycle
– Sulfur forms various gases such as sulfur dioxide,
hydrogen sulfide. Therefore it has gas forms and it
can be returned to an ecosystem more rapidly than
can calcium.
– Annual input of sulfur from the atmosphere to a forest
ecosystem has been measured to be 10 times that of
calcium.
• Therefore, the elements (i.e., calcium) that
cannot form the gas phase are the limiting
factors.

Dr. Mahmud
 Tectonic Cycle
• Tectonic cycle involves creation and destruction
of the solid outer layer of Earth, known as the
lithosphere.
• The lithosphere is broken into several large
segments called plates which are moving
relative to one another.
• Plate tectonics relates such deformities to the
existence and movement of rigid plates over a
partly molten layer in the earth’s upper mantle.

Dr. Mahmud
Tectonic Cycle

Dr. Mahmud
Plate Tectonics

asthenosphere

© John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 2001

Dr. Mahmud
 Plate Tectonics
• Plate tectonics has two kinds of important environmental effects:
• Physical: changes in location and sizes of continents, alter
atmospheric and ocean circulation, and
• Chemical:
The materials of plates are subjected to heat and pressure when
the plates collide,

Altered in chemical form.

Materials are buried (including organic products such as

seashells).

Materials are subjected to heat and pressure.

Converted to coal, oil or natural gas.

Dr. Mahmud
 Plate Boundaries
• Three types of plate boundaries occur (See Fig 5.7) :
• Divergent plate boundary
– It occurs at a spreading ocean ridge where plates are moving
away from one another and new lithosphere is produced. This
process is known as seafloor spreading which produces ocean
basins.
• Convergent plate boundary
– It occurs when plates collide. If one plate dives or subducts
beneath the leading edge of another, a subduction zone is
present and convergence may produce linear mountain ranges
(Andes in South America).
– If two plates collide, a mountain range such as Himalayas in
Asia may form.
• Transform fault boundary
– It occurs where one plate slides past another

Dr. Mahmud
 Hydrological Cycle
• The hydrologic cycle is a conceptual model
that describes the storage and movement of
water between the biosphere, atmosphere,
lithosphere, and the hydrosphere.
• Water on this planet can be stored in any one of
the following reservoirs: atmosphere, oceans,
lakes, rivers, soils, glaciers, snowfields, and
groundwater.
• The cycle is mainly driven by solar energy and
gravitational force.

Dr. Mahmud
Distribution of Water

Dr. Mahmud
 Hydrological Cycle
• The cycle
1. Evaporation - energy input (evaporative cooling), the purification
process
2. Transpiration: evaporation of water from leaves after being extracted
from soil by roots and transported throughout the plant
3. Condensation - energy released (heat is being moved around the
planet)
4. Precipitation - air temperature, removal of pollutants from the
atmosphere
5. Infiltration: movement of water into soil
6. Percolation: downward flow of water through soil and permeable
rock formations to groundwater storage areas called aquifers
7. Surface runoff: down slope surface movement back to the sea to
resume the cycle
8. Groundwater movement: movement of subsurface water

Dr. Mahmud
Hydrological Cycle

Dr. Mahmud
 The Carbon Cycle
• The carbon cycle:
– Carbon combines with and is chemically and
biologically linked with the cycles of oxygen
and hydrogen that form the major compounds
of life
• The carbon cycle is based on carbon
dioxide gas, which makes up 0.036% of
the volume of the troposphere and is also
dissolved in water.
Dr. Mahmud
 The Carbon Cycle
• The carbon cycle is one of the most important to
humans because it is important to our existence:
– one of the primary elements forming human tissues
– necessary to plants, the basis of human food
• It is important to the climate system which sets
the background for our environment:
– carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and methane (CH4 ) are
greenhouse gases which help set global temperatures

Dr. Mahmud
The Carbon Cycle

Dr. Mahmud
 The Carbon Cycle

• If the carbon cycle removes too much CO2 from

the atmosphere, then the earth will cool;
• If the cycle generates too much, then the earth
well get warmer.
• Thus, even slight changes in the carbon cycle
can affect climate and ultimately the types of life
that can exist on various parts of the planet.

Dr. Mahmud
The Storage Reservoir of CO2
• The largest storage reservoir for the earth’s
carbon is sedimentary rocks such as limestone
(CaCO3) on the ocean floor and on continents.
• This carbon reenters the cycle very slowly, when
some of the sediments dissolve and release CO2
gas that can enter the atmosphere.
• Geologic processes can also bring bottom
sediments to the surface, exposing the
carbonate rock to chemical attack by oxygen
and converting them to CO2 gas.
• CO2 is also released into the atmosphere when
acidic rain falls on and dissolves exposed
limestone rock. 
Dr. Mahmud
The Storage Reservoir of CO2
• The oceans are the second largest storage reservoir
in the carbon cycle. Oceans play a major role in
regulating the level of CO2 in the atmosphere.
• Some CO2 gas stays dissolved in the sea, some is
removed by photosynthesis
• Some react with seawater to form carbonate ions (CO3-2)
and bicarbonate ions (HCO3-2).As water warms, more
dissolves CO2 returns to the atmosphere.
• ~15% of the total CO2 in the atmosphere taken up by
the photosynthesis and released by respiration annually.

Dr. Mahmud
Dr. Mahmud Botkin & Keller
Environmental Science 5th
Life has a large
effect
on the chemistry
of the
atmosphere

Botkin & Keller

Dr. Mahmud Environmental Science 5e
 Nitrogen Cycle
• The ratio of carbon to nitrogen to
phosphorus is very constant within the
biosphere
• Ratio of C : N : P =106 : 16 : 1
• N and P limit the productivity of an
ecosystem limiting nutrients

Dr. Mahmud
 Nitrogen Cycle
• Nitrogen is important as:
– Amino acids
– Proteins
– nitrogen is also part of acid rain
• ~78% of atmosphere is nitrogen –
unavailable to most organisms
• Triple bond: two atoms with three shared
elections (N2)
• Breaking this bond requires a lot of energy
Dr. Mahmud
 Nitrogen Cycle
• Nitrogen Fixation - Chemical conversion of
N2 to more reactive forms, e.g. NH3
(ammonia) or NO3 - (nitrate)

• Denitrification - Chemical conversion from

nitrate (NO3 -) back to N2

Dr. Mahmud
Process of Nitrogen fixation and
denitrification
• On land, ammonia can be taken up by plants and by algae in
the oceans.

• Bacteria, plants, and algae covert these inorganic N into

organic compounds.

• N becomes available as organic compounds through ecological

food chains.

• When organisms die, other bacteria (mostly anaerobic) convert

the organic compounds back to nitrate, ammonia, and then into
nitrogen gas or by a series of chemical reactions to molecular
N.

• They are then returned to the atmosphere.

Dr. Mahmud
 Nitrogen Cycle

Bacteria in the nodules of certain legumes –

nitrogen fixers
Enzyme called nitrogenase: cleaves the nitrogen
triple bond, called nitrogen fixation
Dr. Mahmud
 Nitrogen Cycle

Cyanobacteria: blue green algae –

nitrogen fixers

Dr. Mahmud
 Human Intervention
• Human intervene in the nitrogen cycle by:
 Burning any fuel:
 N2+O2=2NO =Adds large amount of nitric oxide
(NO) into the atmosphere.
 NO + O2 = NO2
 NO2 + H2O = HNO3.
 HNO3 comes down with rain or snow and weaken
trees, upset aquatic ecosystems, corrode metals,
and damage marble, stone, and other building
materials.

Dr. Mahmud
 Human Intervention
• Modern agricultural techniques speed up the
nitrogen cycle by adding nitrates and ammonium
to fertilizers
– 140 Tg of nitrogen into the biosphere (2x natural
sources)
– Has impact on water bodies by boom in Algae other
aquatic plants causing Eutrophication and increase
BOD and reduce DO and cause other species to die:
thus fertilizer runoff damages ecosystems
– Helps leach out magnesium and potassium from the
soil resulting release of toxic ones, such as Al, and
cause damage to roots
Dr. Mahmud
 Results of Excess Nutrients
•Primary production
of algae
•Algae blooms reduce
light penetration

•Aerobic respiration of
algae
• Starts decay
•Consumption of oxygen
Marine mortality •Dissolved oxygen levels
decrease
•Negatively impacts
ecosystem
Eutrophic – waters extremely rich in nutrients, very high rates of production
Dr. Mahmud