Beni Setiawan, S.Pd., M.Pd., Ph.D.

Email: benisetiawan@unesa.ac.id
Biogeochemical Cycles

• Energy flows directionally through ecosystems, entering as sunlight (or inorganic

molecules for chemoautotrophs) and leaving as heat during energy transformation
between trophic levels.
• Rather than flowing through an ecosystem, the matter that makes up organisms is
conserved and recycled.
• The six most common elements associated with organic molecules—carbon,
nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur—take a variety of chemical
forms and may exist for long periods in the atmosphere, on land, in water, or
beneath Earth’s surface
• There are a few types of atoms that can be a part of a plant one day, an animal the
next day, and then travel downstream as a part of a river’s water the following day.
• These atoms can be a part of both living things like plants and animals, as well as
non-living things like water, air, and even rocks. The same atoms are recycled over
and over in different parts of the Earth. This type of cycle of atoms between living
and non-living things or the recycling of inorganic matter between living organisms
and their nonliving environment are called biogeochemical cycles
• All of the atoms that are building blocks of living things are a part of biogeochemical
cycles. The most common of these are the carbon and nitrogen cycles.
• Tiny atoms of carbon and nitrogen are able to move around the planet through these
cycles. For example, an atom of carbon is absorbed from the air into the ocean water
where it is used by little floating plankton doing photosynthesis to get the nutrition
they need.
• There is the possibility that this little carbon atom becomes part of the plankton’s
skeleton, or a part of the skeleton of the larger animal that eats it, and then part of a
sedimentary rock when the living things die and only bones are left behind.
• Carbon that is a part of rocks and fossil fuels like oil, coal, and natural gas may be held
away from the rest of the carbon cycle for a long time. These long-term storage places
are called “sinks”. When fossil fuels are burned, carbon that had been underground is
sent into the air as carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
• The six aforementioned elements are used by organisms in a variety of ways.
Hydrogen and oxygen are found in water and organic molecules, both of which
are essential to life. Carbon is found in all organic molecules, whereas nitrogen is
an important component of nucleic acids and proteins. Phosphorus is used to
make nucleic acids and the phospholipids that comprise biological
membranes. Lastly, sulfur is critical to the three-dimensional shape of proteins.
• The cycling of these elements is interconnected. For example, the movement of
water is critical for the leaching of sulfur and phosphorus into rivers, lakes, and
oceans. Minerals cycle through the biosphere between the biotic and abiotic
components and from one organism to another.
• Recently, people have been causing these biogeochemical cycles to change. When
we cut down forests, make more factories, and drive more cars that burn fossil
fuels, the way that carbon and nitrogen move around the Earth changes. These
changes add more greenhouse gases in our atmosphere and this causes climate
change
There are five main processes which essential for nitrogen cycle are
elaborated below:
(a)Nitrogen fixation: This process involves conversion of gaseous nitrogen
into Ammonia, a form in which it can be used by plants. Atmospheric
nitrogen can be fixed by the following three methods:
- (i)Atmospheric fixation: Lightening, combustion and volcanic activity
help in the fixation of nitrogen.
- (ii) Industrial fixation: At high temperature (400oC) and high pressure
(200 atm.), molecular nitrogen is broken into atomic nitrogen which then
combines with hydrogen to form ammonia.
- (iii) Bacterial fixation: There are two types of bacteria- (i) Symbiotic
bacteria e.g. Rhizobium in the root nodules of leguminous plants. (ii)
Freeliving or symbiotic e.g. 1. Nostoc 2. Azobacter 3. Cyanobacteria can
combine atmospheric or dissolved nitrogen with hydrogen to form
ammonia.
(b) Nitrification: It is a process by which ammonia is converted into
nitrates or nitrites by Nitrosomonas and Nitrococcus bacteria respectively.
Another soil bacteria Nitrobacter can covert nitrate into nitrite.
(c) Assimilation: In this process nitrogen fixed by plants is converted into
organic molecules such as proteins, DNA, RNA etc. These molecules
make the plant and animal tissue.
(d) Ammonification: Living organisms produce nitrogenous waste
products such as urea and uric acid. These waste products as well as
dead remains of organisms are converted back into inorganic ammonia
by the bacteria This process is called ammonification. Ammonifying
bacteria help in this process.
(e) Denitrification: Conversion of nitrates back into gaseous nitrogen is
called denitrification. Denitrifying bacteria live deep in soil near the water
table as they like to live in oxygen free medium. Denitrification is reverse
of nitrogen fixation
Unlike carbon cycle, there is no respiratory release of
phosphorus into atmosphere. The other two major and
important differences between carbon and phosphorus cycle
are
firstly, atmospheric inputs of phosphorus through rainfall are
much smaller than carbon inputs, and,
secondly, gaseous exchanges of phosphorus between
organism and environment are negligible
Terima Kasih