Environmental Cycles or Biogeochemical Cycle

The Earth has a limited quantity of chemical elements from when it was formed; and the only way more elements are obtained is from occasional meteorites striking the Earth from outer space. Because the chemicals on Earth function in a closed system, neither significantly increasing nor decreasing in quantity, they are recycled throughout the Earths biological and geological cycles. These cycles include both the living biosphere, and the nonliving lithosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. Water, carbon, nitrogen and some elements that are essential for life tend to move in cycle between the living organism and environment. These cyclic movements are called Biogeochemical cycle. The main biogeochemical cycles describe the movement of water, carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus. Over time, these elements cycle through the biosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere (the latter three are also called geospheres). They can be present in the atmosphere (except for phosphorus) as gases such as CO2, N2; in the hydrosphere as dissolved nutrients and gases such as PO43-, NO3- and CO2; or in the form of minerals such as carbonates, sulphates or phosphates in sedimentary and volcanic rocks.

The Hydrologic Cycle or Water Cycle

All living things are composed mainly of water, but most of the water on Earth lies in the environment (e.g. in lakes, oceans, streams, and the air). The movement of water from the physical environment, and through the biological environment is driven by the sun. In the physical environment, the sun radiates the Earth's surface with heat, evaporating the water, slowly turning liquid water to water vapor, gaseous water. As a gas, water rises from the ground, the surface of streams, lakes, but water mainly rises from our oceans. Once in the air, an air current moves the gaseous water around the Earth. But when molecules of water hits a particle, or when temperatures and pressures reach the point where water liquefied or even solidifies, water begins to condense. As water condenses, it forms into rain or snow, thus the water begins to fall to the ground as it is now too heavy to remain in the air. As the water strikes the ground, some of it seeps into the soil, gathering within water tables under the earth. But the majority of the water runs across the ground, slowly collecting until streams, then rivers form. Where the ground has large divots, lakes form. But eventually, most of the water again reaches the oceans. But the biological environment lives along side of the physical environment. Along this route, organisms live in, bath in, and drink the water, taking water into their bodies. This is important for many organisms, but it is especially important to those who live on land. Terrestrial organisms generally lose tremendous amounts of water, as it evaporates from their bodies. All organisms lose some water as they remove waste from their bodies. 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.

Water

moves from one reservoir to another by way of processes like evaporation, condensation, precipitation, deposition, runoff, infiltration, sublimation, transpiration, melting, and groundwater flow. The oceans supply most of the evaporated water found in the atmosphere. Of this evaporated water, only 91 % of it is returned to the ocean basins by way of precipitation. The remaining 9 % is transported to areas over landmasses where climatological factors induce the formation of precipitation. The resulting imbalance between rates of evaporation and precipitation over land and ocean is corrected by runoff and groundwater flow to the oceans.

The nitrogen cycle The nitrogen cycle is a gaseous cycle: it involves the movement of nitrogen between the soil, living things, and the atmosphere. The atmosphere is the major reservoir of nitrogen (in the form of nitrogen gas, N2, which makes up 73% of the Earth's atmosphere). All living things require nitrogen, using it to make DNA and RNA, and amino acids.

Although nitrogen makes up such a large proportion of the atmosphere, it is often a limiting factor for plant growth. This is because plants can absorb nitrogen only in the form of nitrate (NO3-) or ammonium (NH4+). (Animals must obtain their nitrogen by eating organic material - plants or other animals - containing nitrogen.) Because of this, nitrogen - in the form of nitrate - makes up a large proportion of most commercial fertilisers. Unfortunately, excessive amounts of nitrate in agricultural run-off can have harmful effects on aquatic ecosystems.

Proteins, nucleic acids, and other organic chemicals contain nitrogen, so nitrogen is a very important atom in biological organisms. Nitrogen makes up 79% of Earth's atmosphere, but most organisms can not use nitrogen gas (N2). N2 enters the trophic system through a process called nitrogen fixation. Bacteria found on the roots of some plants can fix N2 to organic molecules, making proteins. Again, animals get their nitrogen by eating plants. But after this point, the nitrogen cycle gets far more complicated than the carbon cycle. Animals releases nitrogen in their urine. Fish releases NH3, but NH3 when concentrated, is poisonous to living organisms. So organisms must dilute NH3with a lot of water. Living in water, fish have no problem with this requirements, but terrestrial animals have problems. They convert NH3 into urine, or another chemical that is not as poisonous as NH3. The process of releases NH3 is called ammonification. Because NH3 is poisonous, most of the NH3 which is released is untouchable. But soil bacteria have the ability to assimilate NH3 into proteins. These bacteria effectively eats the NH3, and make proteins from it. This process is calledassimilation.

Some soil bacteria does not convert NH3 into proteins, but they make nitrate NO3- instead. This process is called nitrification. Some plants can use NO3-, consuming nitrate and making proteins. Some soil bacteria, however, takes NO3-, and converts it into N2, returning nitrogen gas back into the atmosphere. This last process is called denitrification, because it breaks nitrate apart. Some atmospheric nitrogen is 'fixed' by lightning into NO3-, and then carried into the soil by rainwater. However, most of it is fixed by microorganisms in the soil.
When an organism dies, nitrogen from their bodies - in the form of ammonia (NH3) is converted by decomposers into ammonium (NH4+), a process known as mineralisation. Nitrosomonas bacteria convert the ammonium into nitrite (NO2-), and the nitrite is in turn altered to form nitrate (NO3-) by Nitrobacter bacteria. These processes are called nitrification. The nitrate they produce is highly soluble in soil water and so readily available to plants. However, because it is so soluble, nitrate is also easily leached from the soil and into waterways. NItrogen returns to the atmosphere as a result of denitrification, in which nitrate is reduced by anaerobic bacteria into nitrogen gas (N2) or nitrous oxide (N2O).

Human activities have had a significant effect on this naturallyoccurring nitrogen cycle. Nitrates can enter the soil - and the soil water - from septic tanks, dairy shed effluent, agricultural fertilisers and animal wastes, industrial waste waters, landfills, and sewage plants. For lakes such as Rotorua, run-off from agricultural land has been a major contributor to excessive levels of nitrate in the lake water. Most leaching of nitrate to waterways occurs during winter, when plant growth is slower, soils are wet, and rainfall is higher. This means that nitrate concentrations in groundwater are highest in winter and spring. However, during summer and autumn, when plants are growing and taking up nitrate from the soil, there is less leaching and nitrate concentrations in groundwater are lower. The amount of leaching that happens is also affected by when and how much fertiliser is applied to pasture; when, how, and how much the land is irrrigated; disposal of wastewater; and general weather patterns - in other words, it's a very complex picture!

Carbon Cycle

Organic chemicals are made from carbon more than any other atom, so the Carbon Cycle is a very important one. Carbon between the biological to the physical environment as it moves through the carbon cycle. Earth's atmosphere contains 0.035% carbon dioxide, CO2, and the biological environment depends upon plants to pull carbon into sugars, proteins, and fats. Using photosynthesis, plants use sunlight to bind carbon to glucose, releasing oxygen (O2)in the process. Through other metabolic processes, plants may convert glucose to other sugars, proteins, or fats. Animals obtain their carbon by eating and digesting plants, so carbon moves through the biotic environment through the trophic system. Herbivore eat plants, but are themselves eaten by carnivores.

Carbon returns to the physical environment in a number of ways. Both plants and animals respire, so they release CO2 during respiration. Luckily for animals, plants just happen to consume more CO2 through photosynthesis than they can produce. Another route of CO2 back to the physical environment occurs through the death of plants and animals. When organisms die, decomposers consume their bodies. In the process, some of the carbon returns to the physical environment by way of fossilization. Some of it remains in the biological environment as other organisms eat the decomposers. But by far, most of the carbon returns to the physical environment through the respiration of CO2. Any disruption in any of the nutrients can have major effects on the environment. Oil, gas, peat, and coal are formed from dead organisms over periods of millions of years. Most of these substances were formed from organisms that lived in the over 300 million years ago. Therefore, these are not renewable resources; once gone, they cannot be replaced.