Additional Biogeochemical Cycle

 Carbon is found in all organic macromolecules and is also a key component of fossil fuels.
 Nitrogen is needed for our DNA, RNA and proteins and is critical to human agriculture.
 Phosphorus is a key component of DNA and RNA and is one of the main ingredients—along
with nitrogen—in artificial fertilizers used in agriculture.
 Sulfur is key to protein structure and is released to the atmosphere by the burning of fossil
fuels.

Carbon Cycle

Carbon moves from the atmosphere to plants. In the atmosphere, carbon is attached to oxygen in a
gas called carbon dioxide (CO2). Through the process of photosynthesis, carbon dioxide is pulled
from the air to produce food made from carbon for plant growth.

Carbon moves from plants to animals. Through food chains, the carbon that is in plants moves to the
animals that eat them. Animals that eat other animals get the carbon from their food too.

Carbon moves from plants and animals to soils. When plants and animals die, their bodies, wood and
leaves decays bringing the carbon into the ground. Some is buried and will become fossil fuels in
millions and millions of years.

Carbon moves from living things to the atmosphere. Each time you exhale, you are releasing carbon
dioxide gas (CO2) into the atmosphere. Animals and plants need to get rid of carbon dioxide gas
through a process called respiration.

Carbon moves from fossil fuels to the atmosphere when fuels are burned. When humans burn fossil
fuels to power factories, power plants, cars and trucks, most of the carbon quickly enters the
atmosphere as carbon dioxide gas. Each year, five and a half billion tons of carbon is released by
burning fossil fuels. Of this massive amount, 3.3 billion tons stays in the atmosphere. Most of the
remainder becomes dissolved in seawater.

Carbon moves from the atmosphere to the oceans. The oceans, and other bodies of water, absorb
some carbon from the atmosphere. The carbon is dissolved into the water.

Longer Version:

The biological carbon cycle

Carbon enters all food webs, both terrestrial and aquatic, through autotrophs, or self-feeders.
Almost all of these autotrophs are photosynthesizers, such as plants or algae.
Autotrophs capture carbon dioxide from the air or bicarbonate ions from the water and use them to
make organic compounds such as glucose. Heterotrophs, or other-feeders, such as humans,
consume the organic molecules, and the organic carbon is passed through food chains and webs.

How does carbon cycle back to the atmosphere or ocean? To release the energy stored in carbon-
containing molecules, such as sugars, autotrophs and heterotrophs break these molecules down in a
process called cellular respiration. In this process, the carbons of the molecule are released as
carbon dioxide. Decomposers also release organic compounds and carbon dioxide when they break
down dead organisms and waste products.

The geological carbon cycle

The geological pathway of the carbon cycle takes much longer than the biological pathway described
above. Carbon may be stored for long periods of time in the atmosphere, bodies of liquid water—
mostly oceans— ocean sediment, soil, rocks, fossil fuels, and Earth’s interior.

On land, carbon is stored in soil as organic carbon from the decomposition of living organisms or as
inorganic carbon from weathering of terrestrial rock and minerals. Deeper under the ground are
fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and natural gas, which are the remains of plants decomposed under
anaerobic—oxygen-free—conditions. Fossil fuels take millions of years to form. When humans burn
them, carbon is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

Another way for carbon to enter the atmosphere is by the eruption of volcanoes. Carbon-containing
sediments in the ocean floor are taken deep within the Earth in a process called subduction, in which
one tectonic plate moves under another. This process forms carbon dioxide, which can be released
into the atmosphere by volcanic eruptions or hydrothermal vents.

Human impacts on the carbon cycle

Nitrogen Cycle

Key points

 Nitrogen is a key component of the bodies of living organisms. Nitrogen atoms are found in
all proteins and DNA
  Nitrogen exists in the atmosphere as N2. In nitrogen fixation, bacteria convert N2 into
ammonia, a form of nitrogen usable by plants. When animals eat the plants, they acquire
usable nitrogen compounds.
 Nitrogen is a common limiting nutrient in nature, and agriculture. A limiting nutrient is the
nutrient that's in shortest supply and limits growth.
 When fertilizers containing nitrogen and phosphorus are carried in runoff to lakes and rivers,
they can result in blooms of algae—this is called eutrophication.

Stage 1: Nitrogen Fixation

Nitrogen fixation is the process by which gaseous nitrogen (N2) is converted to ammonia (NH3 or
NH4+) via biological fixation or nitrate (NO3-) through high-energy physical processes. N2 is
extremely stable and a great deal of energy is required to break the bonds that join the two N
atoms. N2 can be converted directly into NO3- through processes that exert a tremendous amount
of heat, pressure, and energy. Such processes include combustion, volcanic action, lightning
discharges, and industrial means. However, a greater amount of biologically available nitrogen is
naturally generated via the biological conversion of N2 to NH3/ NH4+. A small group of bacteria and
cyanobacteria are capable using the enzyme nitrogenase to break the bonds among the molecular
nitrogen and combine it with hydrogen.

Nitrogenase only functions in the absence of oxygen. The exclusion of oxygen is accomplished by
many means. Some bacteria live beneath layers of oxygen-excluding slime on the roots of certain
plants. The most important soil dwelling bacteria, Rhizobium, live in oxygen-free zones in nodules on
the roots of legumes and some other woody plants. Aquatic filamentous cyanobacteria utilize
oxygen-excluding cells called heterocysts.

Nitrogen-fixing bacteria are prokaryotic microorganisms that are capable of transforming nitrogen
gas from the atmosphere into “fixed nitrogen” compounds, such as ammonia, that are usable by
plants.

Nitrites have one nitrogen atom and two oxygen atoms, while nitrates have one nitrogen atom and
two oxygen atoms.

Stage 2: Mineralization

This stage takes place in the soil. Nitrogen moves from organic materials, such as manure or plant
materials to an inorganic form of nitrogen that plants can use. Eventually, the plant’s nutrients are
used up and the plant dies and decomposes. This becomes important in the second stage of the
nitrogen cycle. Mineralization happens when microbes act on organic material, such as animal
manure or decomposing plant or animal material and begin to convert it to a form of nitrogen that
can be used by plants.

The first form of nitrogen produced by the process of mineralization is ammonia, NH 3. The NH3 in the
soil then reacts with water to form ammonium, NH 4. This ammonium is held in the soils and is
available for use by plants that do not get nitrogen through the symbiotic nitrogen fixing relationship
described above.

Stage 3: Nitrification
Nitrification is a two-step process in which NH3/ NH4+ is converted to NO3-. Nitrosomonas bacteria
first convert nitrogen gas to nitrite (NO2-) and subsequently nitrobacter convert nitrite to nitrate
(NO3-), a plant nutrient. These bacteria gain energy through these conversions, both of which require
oxygen to occur.

Nitrifying Bacteria are any of a small group of aerobic bacteria that use inorganic chemicals as an
energy source. They are microorganisms that are important in the nitrogen cycle as converters of
soil ammonia to nitrates, compounds usable by plants.

Step 4: Assimilation

Assimilation is the process by which plants and animals incorporate the NO3- and ammonia formed
through nitrogen fixation and nitrification. Plants take up these forms of nitrogen through their
roots, and incorporate them into plant proteins and nucleic acids. Animals are then able to utilize
nitrogen from the plant tissues.

Step 5: Ammonification

Assimilation produces large quantities of organic nitrogen, including proteins, amino acids, and
nucleic acids. Ammonification is the conversion of organic nitrogen into ammonia. The ammonia
produced by this process is excreted into the environment and is then available for either
nitrification or assimilation.

Stage 6: Denitrification

Denitrification is the reduction of NO3- to gaseous N2 by anaerobic bacteria. This process only occurs
where there is little to no oxygen, such as deep in the soil near the water table. Hence, areas such as
wetlands provide a valuable place for reducing excess nitrogen levels via denitrification processes.

Denitrifying bacteria are microorganisms whose action results in the conversion of nitrates in soil to
free atmospheric nitrogen, thus depleting soil fertility and reducing agricultural productivity .

Nitrogen as a limiting nutrient

In natural ecosystems, many processes, such as primary production and decomposition, are limited
by the available supply of nitrogen. In other words, nitrogen is often the limiting nutrient, the
nutrient that's in shortest supply and thus limits the growth of organisms or populations.

How do we know if a nutrient is limiting? Often, this is tested as follows:

 When a nutrient is limiting, adding more of it will increase growth—e.g., it will cause plants
to grow taller than if nothing were added.
 If a non-limiting nutrient is instead added, it won't have an effect—e. g., plants will grow to
the same height whether the nutrient is present or absent.

For example, if we added nitrogen to half the bean plants in a garden and found that they grew taller
than untreated plants that would suggest nitrogen was limiting. If, instead, we didn't see a
difference in growth in our experiment, that would suggest that some other nutrient than nitrogen
must be limiting.
Nitrogen and phosphorus are the two most common limiting nutrients in both natural ecosystems
and agriculture. That's why, if you look at a bag of fertilizer, you will see it contains a lot of nitrogen
and phosphorus.

Human activity affects cycling of nitrogen.

In general, human activity releases nitrogen into the environment by two main means: combustion
of fossil fuels and use of nitrogen-containing fertilizers in agriculture. Both processes increase levels
of nitrogen-containing compounds in the atmosphere. High levels of atmospheric nitrogen—other
than N2—are associated with harmful effects, like the production of acid rain—as nitric acid, HNO3
—and contributions to the greenhouse effect—as nitrous oxide, N2O

Also, when artificial fertilizers containing nitrogen and phosphorus are used in agriculture, the excess
fertilizer may be washed into lakes, streams, and rivers by surface runoff. A major effect from
fertilizer runoff is saltwater and freshwater eutrophication. Eutrophication is when a body of water
becomes overly enriched with minerals and nutrients which induce excessive growth of algae. This
process may result in oxygen depletion of the water body.

Water Cycle

Precipitation- is water released from clouds in the form of rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow, or hail.

Evapo-transpiration- is the sum of evaporation and plant transpiration from the Earth's land and
ocean surface to the atmosphere.

Recharge- is a hydrologic process, where water moves downward from surface water to
groundwater.

Run-off- is precipitation that did not get (infiltrated) absorbed into the soil or did not evaporate, and
therefore, made its way from the ground surface into places that water collect
Interception- refers to precipitation that does not reach the soil, but is instead intercepted by the
leaves, branches of plants and the forest floor

Infiltration- is the process by which precipitation or water soaks into subsurface soils and moves into
rocks through cracks and pore spaces

Transpiration- This is the discharge of water vapor from the leaves of plants into the atmosphere

Percolation- Water flows vertically through the soil and rocks under the influence of gravity.

Phosphorus Cycle

Key points

 Phosphorus is an essential nutrient found in the macromolecules of humans and other

organisms, including DNA\text{DNA}DNAstart text, D, N, A, end text.
 The phosphorus cycle is slow. Most phosphorus in nature exists in the form of phosphate ion
—PO43−\text {PO}_4^{3-}PO43−start text, P, O, end text, start subscript, 4, end subscript,
start superscript, 3, minus, end superscript.
 Phosphorus is often the limiting nutrient, or nutrient that is most scarce and thus limits
growth, in aquatic ecosystems.
 When nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer are carried in runoff to lakes and oceans, they
can cause eutrophication, the overgrowth of algae. The algae may deplete oxygen from the
water and create a dead zone.

Introduction

Phosphorus is an essential nutrient for living organisms. It’s a key part of nucleic acids, like DNA and
of the phospholipids that form our cell membranes. As calcium phosphate, it also makes up the
supportive components of our bones.
In nature, phosphorus is often the limiting nutrient—in other words, the nutrient that’s in shortest
supply and puts a limit on growth—and this is particularly true for aquatic, freshwater ecosystems.

Natural cycling of phosphorus

The phosphorus cycle is slow compared to other biogeochemical cycles such as the water, carbon,
and nitrogen cycles.
In nature, phosphorus is found mostly in the form of phosphate ions—PO43. Phosphate compounds
are found in sedimentary rocks, and as the rocks weather—wear down over long time periods—the
phosphorus they contain slowly leaches into surface water and soils.

Phosphate compounds in the soil can be taken up by plants and, from there, transferred to animals
that eat the plants. When plants and animals excrete wastes or die, phosphates may be taken up by
detritivores or returned to the soil
Here are the key steps of the phosphorus cycle

 Over time, rain and weathering cause rocks to release phosphate ions and other minerals.
This inorganic phosphate is then distributed in soils and water.
 Plants take up inorganic phosphate from the soil. The plants may then be consumed by
animals. Once in the plant or animal, the phosphate is incorporated into organic molecules
such as DNA. When the plant or animal dies, it decays, and the organic phosphate is
returned to the soil.
 Within the soil, organic forms of phosphate can be made available to plants by bacteria that
break down organic matter to inorganic forms of phosphorus. This process is known as
mineralisation.
 Phosphorus in soil can end up in waterways and eventually oceans. Once there, it can be
incorporated into sediments over time.

Sulfur Cycle
The sulfur cycle is the collection of processes by which sulfur moves between rocks, waterways and
living systems.

It contains both atmospheric and terrestrial processes. Within the terrestrial portion, the cycle
begins with the weathering of rocks, releasing the stored sulfur. The sulfur then comes into contact
with air where it is converted into sulfate (SO4). The sulfate is taken up by plants and
microorganisms and is converted into organic forms; animals then consume these organic forms
through foods they eat, thereby moving the sulfur through the food chain. As organisms die and
decompose, some of the sulfur is again released as a sulfate and some enters the tissues of
microorganisms. There are also a variety of natural sources that emit sulfur directly into the
atmosphere, including volcanic eruptions.

Sulfur eventually settles back into the Earth or comes down within rainfall. A continuous loss of
sulfur from terrestrial ecosystem runoff occurs through drainage into lakes and streams, and
eventually oceans. Sulfur also enters the ocean through fallout from the Earth’s atmosphere. A
portion of this sulfur is emitted back into the atmosphere from sea spray. The remaining sulfur is lost
to the ocean depths, combining with iron to form ferrous sulfide which is responsible for the black
color of most marine sediments.

One-third of all sulfur that reaches the atmosphere—including 90% of sulfur dioxide—stems from
human activities. Emissions from these activities, along with nitrogen emissions, react with other
chemicals in the atmosphere to produce tiny particles of sulfate salts which fall as acid rain, causing
a variety of damage. However, as particles and tiny airborne droplets, sulfur also acts as a regulator
of global climate. Sulfur dioxide and sulfate aerosols absorb ultraviolet radiation, creating cloud
cover that cools cities and may offset global warming caused by the greenhouse effect.

Steps of the sulfur cycle are:

 Mineralization of organic sulfur into inorganic forms, such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S),
elemental sulfur, as well as sulfide minerals.
 Oxidation of hydrogen sulfide, sulfide, and elemental sulfur (S) to sulfate (SO42−).
 Reduction of sulfate to sulfide.
 Incorporation of sulfide into organic compounds (including metal-containing derivatives).