BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES

 Ecological cycles
 Various self-regulating processes that recycle the earth’s limited resources that are
essential to sustain life.
 water, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus
IMPORTANCE OF WATER
 Domestic Purposes. cooking. drinking. bathing. washing.
 Agricultural Purposes. farming gardening fisheries.
 Industrial Purposes. Manufacturing.
 Recreation. swimming. rafting. boating.
 Recreation. swimming. rafting. boating.
WATER IN THE BODY
 Protects Your Tissues, Spinal Cord, and Joints
 Helps Your Body Remove Waste
 Aids in Digestion
 Prevents You From Becoming Dehydrated
UNIQUE PROPERTIES OF WATER
 There are strong molecular forces between molecules of water.
 Water exists as a liquid over a wide temperature range.
 Liquid water can dissolve a variety of substances.
 Water expands when it freezes.
WATER CYCLE/HYDROLOGIC CYCLE
 The water cycle describes how water evaporates from the surface of the earth, rises into
the atmosphere, cools and condenses into rain or snow in clouds, and falls again to the
surface as precipitation.
THE WATER CYCLE IN ACTION
 Evaporation (Transpiration)
 Condensation
 Precipitation
 Collection
 Runoff
 Interception
 Infiltration
 Percolation
 Groundwater Discharge
 CARBON CYCLE
CARBON (C)
 Latin word, “carbo”, which means “coal”.
 15th most abundant element in the earth's crust, and the fourth most abundant element in
the universe (after hydrogen, helium and oxygen)
 It is the second most abundant element in the body(18.5%).
 soot, coal/charcoal, diamond, CO2

USES OF CARBON
 Impure carbon in the form of charcoal (from wood) and coke (from coal) is used in metal
smelting. It is particularly important in the iron and steel industries.
 Graphite is used in pencils, to make brushes in electric motors and in furnace linings.
Activated charcoal is used for purification and filtration. It is found in respirators and
kitchen extractor hoods.
 Carbon fibre is finding many uses as a very strong, yet lightweight, material. It is
currently used in tennis rackets, skis, fishing rods, rockets and aeroplanes.
 Industrial diamonds are used for cutting rocks and drilling. Diamond films are used to
protect surfaces such as razor blades.
 The more recent discovery of carbon nanotubes, other fullerenes and atom-thin sheets of
graphene has revolutionised hardware developments in the electronics industry and in
nanotechnology generally.
 Some of the carbohydrates are used, along with nitrogen, phosphorus and other elements,
to form the other monomer molecules of life. These include bases and sugars for RNA
and DNA, and amino acids for proteins.
 Photosynthesis
CARBON CYCLE
 The carbon cycle is the process through which carbon is cycled through the air, ground,
plants, animals, and fossil fuels.
 OXYGEN CYCLE
OXYGEN (O)
 A colourless, odourless gas.
 Joseph Priestley in Wiltshire, England and independently by Carl Wilhelm Scheele in
Uppsala, Sweden
 The greatest commercial use of oxygen gas is in the steel industry.
 It is also used to make epoxyethane (ethylene oxide), used as antifreeze and to make
polyester, and chloroethene, the precursor to PVC. Polyvinylchloride
 Oxygen gas is used for oxy-acetylene welding and cutting of metals
 Atmosphere is 21% oxygen by volume (O3, CO2, H20, sulfur and nitrogen oxides)
 Biosphere is 22% oxygen by volume (organic molecules and water molecules)
 Lithosphere is 94% oxygen by volume (silica minerals SO2, and oxide minerals)
OXYGEN CYCLE
 The oxygen cycle is the cycle that helps move oxygen through the three main regions of
the Earth, the Atmosphere, the Biosphere, and the Lithosphere.
 NITROGEN CHEMICAL
NITROGEN (N)
 Daniel Rutherford in 1772
 “nitron” and “gene” (nitre forming)
 colorless/odorless gas
 most abundant element in the atmosphere

USES OF NITROGEN
 Used to build up the bases needed to construct DNA, RNA and all amino acids

 Used to make fertilizers, nylon, dyes and explosives.

 Refrigerant (liquid nitrogen)
 NITROGEN CYCLE
 The series of processes by which nitrogen and its compounds are interconverted in the
environment and in living organisms, including nitrogen fixation and decomposition.
PROCESSES OF NITROGEN CYCLE
1. Nitrogen Fixation
2. Assimilation
3. Ammonification
4. Nitrification
5. Denitrification
NITROGEN FIXATION
 Process wherein nitrogen gas (N2) is converted to nitrates and nitrites.
 Done by Nitrogen - fixing Bacteria (Rhizobium) which can be found on the roots of
legumes.
 can also be fixed by lightning, forest fires and lava flows.
AMMONIFICATION
 mineralization
 Bacteria or fungi convert organic nitrogen within the remains back into ammonium
(NH3)
ASSIMILATION
 Nitrogen Uptake
 Plants absorb nitrates (NO3) or ammonium (NH3) from the soil through their roots.
NITRIFICATION
 Ammonium produced by decomposition is converted to nitrate (NO3-)
 Requires the presence of oxygen
 Nitrifying Bacteria
DENITRIFICATION
 Reduction of nitrates back into nitrogen gas (N2), completing the nitrogen cycle
 This is done by Denitrifying Bacteria in anaerobic conditions.