OBJECTIVES

• Summarize the steps of the water cycle in a

diagram.
• Explain how carbon and oxygen are cycled
through an ecosystem.
• Describe why nitrogen must cycle through an
ecosystem.
• Summarize the 3 major conversions of nitrogen in
ecosystems.
• Explain why it is important that phosphorus be
cycled through an ecosystem. Nah vj
 VOCABULARY

• Carbon Cycle
• Respiration
• Nitrogen cycle
• Phosphorus cycle
 NUTRIENT CYCLES: OBJECTIVES
• Summarize the steps of the water cycle in a diagram.
• Explain how carbon and oxygen are cycled through an
ecosystem in the carbon cycle.
• Define the steps in the nitrogen cycle.
• Summarize the 3 major conversions of nitrogen in the
nitrogen cycle.
• Be able to define the steps and know how one step
impacts the other.
• Be able to predict the outcome if one step of a cycle
is manipulated (products are removed or skipped).
• Do:
• Complete the packet in groups. This is your information
gathering. Complete by next class.
• Complete the cycles handout. This is also due next class.
 CYCLES

• Just as organisms are interconnected to each other

they are connected to the physical environment as
well.
• Name several examples of non-living things that
organisms, such as yourself, require to live.
• Oxygen, water, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus
are a few examples of these that we will discuss in
this section.
• Not what roles they play though. We already talked
about that in the previous chapter.
• You will learn how these substances cycle through
the ecosystems so that they may maintain their
availability to living organisms.
 CYCLES IN NATURE

• Biogeochemical cycles = Cycles in which

water and minerals are recycled and
reused by moving from the non-living
portion of the environment into living
things and back again.
• Water Cycle
• Carbon Cycle
• Nitrogen Cycle
 WATER CYCLE

• The water cycle continuously moves water

between the atmosphere, the land, and the
oceans.

• We see it first hand in several forms.

• Rain falls and is soaked up by the ground, or it

pools where it’s drank, or it is absorbed by plants,
or it will sit and evaporate back up into the
atmosphere.
• Since it’s a cycle there is no starting point.

• We’ll start with water forming in the atmosphere.

IN THE MARGIN OF YOUR NOTES, IDENTIFY THE STEPS NUMBERED 1-6.

Condensation
 CONDENSATION

• First, water vapor condenses in the cool air of

the sky into the clouds we see.
• Even if there’s no clouds there is still plenty of
water there.
At any moment, the atmosphere contains an astounding 37.5
million billion gallons of water, in the invisible vapor phase. This is
enough water to cover the entire surface of the Earth (land and
ocean) with one inch of rain.
http://whyfiles.org/2010/how-much-water-is-in-the-atmosphere/
 PRECIPITATION

• When enough water accumulates in the

atmosphere it collects a water droplets, gets
heavy, and falls back to Earth.
• This, what we call rain, is also known as
precipitation.
 RUN OFF & PERCOLATION
Some of this • Other water,
water
called runoff,
percolates,
flows and
or is
accumulates
absorbed or
across the
soaked into
surface of Earth
the soil and
and runs into
becomes
rivers, lakes,
groundwater
and oceans.
.
 TRANSPIRATION & EVAPORATION

• Once here if not consumed, the water is heated

by the sun and reenters the atmosphere as
water vapor by evaporation.

• Water also evaporates from trees and plants in

a process called transpiration (& animals in
perspiration…sweating).
 IN THE MARGIN OF YOUR NOTES, IDENTIFY THE STEPS NUMBERED 1-6.

1
Condensatio
2 n

3
6
4 4

5
 NITROGEN CYCLE
• Nitrogen, another essential element, must also be cycled.
• The atmosphere is about 78% nitrogen gas, N2. But most
organisms cannot use nitrogen gas.

• The nitrogen cycle is all about getting the nitrogen in the

atmosphere into forms that can be used by organisms.

• Recall, Nitrogen is used for

• The amino acids of proteins.
• In the nitrogenous bases of DNA & RNA

• The nitrogen cycle is the process in which nitrogen

circulates among the air, soil, water, and organisms in an
ecosystem.
 NITROGEN CYCLE

How
atmospheric
nitrogen gets
into the soil so it
can be accessed
• In a process called nitrogen fixation, by living things.
bacteria convert nitrogen gas, N2,
into ammonia, NH3.

• N2  Nitrogen Fixation (Bacteria)  NH3

• Nitrogen-fixing bacteria
live in the soil and on the
roots of some plants.
 NITROGEN CYCLE

• During
How
ammonification, atmospheric
nitrogen from nitrogen gets
into the soil so it
animal waste or can be accessed
decaying bodies by living things.

is returned to the
soil as ammonia
by bacteria and
decomposers.
NITROGEN CYCLE

• During
nitrification,
ammonia, NH3, is
converted to
nitrite and then
nitrate NO3.
• Try not to confuse
this with nitrogen
fixation.
NITROGEN CYCLE

• Assimilation is the
Forms of process in which
nitrogen that
can be plants absorb
accessed by nitrogen. When an
living things
animal eats a plant,
nitrogen compounds
become part of the
animal’s body.
NITROGEN CYCLE

• During denitrification,
nitrate, NO3, is changed to
nitrogen gas, N2, which
returns to the
atmosphere.
NITROGEN CYCLE: ON YOUR HANDOUTS,
LABEL THE PARTS OF THE CYCLE.
NITROGEN CYCLE
 NITROGEN CYCLE: MACRO PERSPECTIVE

Assimilation

Ammonification

Nitrogen fixation Denitrification

Nitrification
 CARBON AND OXYGEN CYCLES

• Carbon and oxygen are critical for life on Earth,

and their cycles are tied closely together.
• Just as with water, these are both cycled so
organisms always have a supply available.
• The carbon cycle is the continuous movement of
carbon from the nonliving environment into living
things and back.
 THE CARBON CYCLE

• Starting with atmospheric

carbon dioxide, the carbon
cycle begins with plants and
other autotrophs absorbing CO2
and converting into usable
sugars and starches.
• This process is known as
photosynthesis.
THE CARBON CYCLE

• Animals then eat this

vegetation.
• They break down the
sugars & starches
made by plants and
covert it into ATP,
the energy of
metabolism.
• In the process, they
release CO2 back
into the atmosphere.
• This process is called
cellular
respiration.
 THE CARBON CYCLE

• All life, plants, animals & everything else,

eventually dies.
• When it does it is broken down , decays, and
collects as fossil fuels.
• Fossil fuels, like
oil and gasoline,
accumulate after
millions of years
of this process of
death and decay.
 THE CARBON CYCLE

• The burning of this

fuel, called
combustion, also
releases carbon
dioxide back into the
atmosphere.
THE CARBON CYCLE: ON YOUR HANDOUTS,
LABEL THE PARTS OF THE CYCLE.
THE CARBON CYCLE
THE CARBON
CYCLE

Man also
plays a role.
We are
responsible
for burning
fossil fuels,
eating, COMBUSTION
releasing
carbon
dioxide, and
dying.
These all
contribute to
the cycling of
carbon.
 CONCEPTS SUMMARY

• These are the things you have been exposed to

and need to know:
1. What is the difference between food chains and
food webs.
2. Why energy is lost in a food chain.
3. The 3 main cycles of matter.
4. Why they are important.
5. What are the steps in the cycles.
 3.. During which of the following months is the rate of
photosynthesis greatest?
ANSWERS A. May
B. March
1. Which of the following organisms C. January
can transform light energy into D. September
chemical energy?
4. If the data were obtained from the atmosphere over an
A. organism 1 evergreen forest, the curve likely would
B. organism 4 A. rise from February to May and fall from August to
C. organism 7 November.
D. organism 9 B. vary less throughout the year.
C. rise steadily from January to December.
2. If a disease killed off all of organism D. fall steadily from January to December.
2, which of the following organisms
would be most affected? 5. If the y-axis of a graph displayed the rate of
transpiration of a deciduous forest, the curve likely would
A. organism 3 A. rise from February to May and fall from August to
B. organism 7 November.
C. organism 8 B. vary little throughout the year.
D. organism 9 C. rise steadily from January to December.
D. fall steadily from January to December.
 PHOSPHORUS CYCLE

• Phosphorus is often found in soil and rock as

calcium phosphate, which dissolves in water to
form phosphate.

• The roots of plants absorb phosphate. Humans

and animals that eat the plants reuse the organic
phosphorus.

• When the humans and animals die, phosphorus is

returned to the soil.
 PHOSPHORUS CYCLE
• Like water, carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen, phosphorus must be
cycled in order for an ecosystem to support life.

• Remember, phosphorus is an important element in ATP and DNA.

• It must cycle just like the other molecules.

• The phosphorus cycle is the movement of phosphorus

in different chemical forms from the surroundings to
organisms and then back to the surroundings.
THE PHOSPHORUS CYCLE