ENV 107

Introduction to
Environmental Science

Lecture 6: Environment Cycles

Tahmid Huq Easher (THE)

Senior Lecturer, ESM
Summer 2018

North South University

 Environment Cycle
• Environment cycles
– Tectonic cycle
– Hydrologic cycle
– Biogeochemical cycle
• Carbon Cycle
• Nitrogen Cycle
 Tectonic cycle
• Tectonic processes are driven by forces deep within the
earth. They deform the earth's crust, producing external
forms such as ocean basins, continents, and mountains.
These processes are collectively known as the tectonic
cycle.
• Tectonic cycle involves creation and destruction of the
solid outer layer of Earth, known as the lithosphere.
• The lithosphere is broken into several large segments
called plates which are moving relative to one another.
 Plate Tectonics
• The slow movement of large segments of earth’s
outermost rock shell. These plates float on dense
material.
• This cycle is driven by forces originating deep within
earth.
• Lithosphere is broken into twelve large parts called
tectonic plates that move relative to one another.
• As the lithospheric plates move over the asthenosphere,
the continents also move. This moving of continents is
called continental drift.
 Plate Boundaries
The boundaries between plates are geologically active
areas where most earthquakes and volcanic activities
occur.
There are three types of boundaries:
• Divergent: occurs at a spreading ocean ridge where
plates are moving away from one another and new
lithosphere is produced
• Convergent: occurs when plates collide; If two plates
collide, a mountain range (Himalayas) may form.
• Transform faults: Transform fault boundaries occur
where one plate slides past another
 Hydrological Cycle
• The movement of water from the oceans, to the
atmosphere, and back to the oceans, by way of
precipitation, evaporation, stream runoff, and
groundwater flow.
• Driven by solar energy.
• Only a very small amount of the total water in the cycle
is active near the earth's surface at any one time, and
• Yet tremendously important in facilitating the movement
of chemical elements in geochemical cycle), forming the
landscape, weathering rocks, transporting and
depositing sediments, and providing water resources.
 Hydrological Cycle
The hydrologic cycle collects, purifies, and distributes the
earth's fixed supply of water through;
• evaporation (conversion of water into water vapor),
• transpiration (evaporation from leaves of water extracted
from soil by roots and trans­ported throughout the plant),
• condensation (conver­sion of water vapor into droplets of
liquid water),
• precipitation (rain, sleet, hail, and snow)
 Hydrological Cycle
• infiltra­tion (movement of water into soil),
• percolation (downward flow of water through soil and
permeable rock formations to groundwater storage areas
called aquifers), and
• runoff (down slope surface movement back to the sea to
resume the cycle).
• Powered by energy from the sun and by gravity.
• Incoming solar energy evaporates water from oceans,
streams, lakes, soil, and vegetation.
• About 84% of water vapor in the atmosphere comes from
the oceans, and the rest comes from land.
 Biogeochemical Cycle
• It’s the pathway that a chemical element follows through
the Earth system-from the atmosphere, waters, rock, or
soils, to living organisms and back to the atmosphere,
ocean, soils, or to other organisms.
• It’s chemical cycle because chemical elements are the
form that we consider.
• It’s bio because these are the cycles that involve life.
• It’s geo because these cycles include atmosphere, water,
rocks, and soils.
 Biogeochemical Cycles and Life
• All living things made up of chemical elements.
• But about 118 known chemical elements, only 24 are
required by organisms. They are divided into
• Macro-nutrients elements required in large amounts by all
life.
• Big-six macro-elements that form the fundamental building
blocks of life: Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen,
phosphorus, and sulfur.
• Micro-nutrients elements required either small amounts by
life or moderate amounts for some forms of life and not
others.
• Iron, Cobalt, Chromium, Copper, Iodine, Manganese, Zinc
etc.
 Carbon Cycle
• Carbon is the building block of life that anchors all organic
substances
• The carbon cycle is based on carbon dioxide gas (0.036% in
atmosphere) and is also dissolved in water
• The carbon cycle is the process that redistributes carbon on
earth
• Plants use carbon dioxide and sunlight to make their food, this
process is called photosynthesis
• When the plants use carbon to create food it becomes part of the
plant. Plants that die and are buried may turn into fossil fuels
made of carbon like coal and oil over millions of years
• When humans burn fossil fuels, most of the carbon enters the
atmosphere as carbon dioxide
• Once the carbon is released into the atmosphere the cycle starts
again as the plants begin to create their food and so on
 Carbon Cycle Steps
• Carbon enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide from
respiration (breathing) and combustion (burning)
• Carbon dioxide is absorbed by producers (life forms that make
their own food e.g. plants) to make carbohydrates in
photosynthesis . These producers then put off oxygen
 Carbon Cycle Steps
• Animals feed on the plants and pass carbon compounds along the
food chain. Most of the carbon these animals consume is exhaled
as carbon dioxide, called process of respiration.
• The animals and plants then eventually die. The dead organisms
are eaten by decomposers in the ground. The carbon that was in
their bodies is then returned to the atmosphere as carbon
dioxide. Sometimes the process of decomposition is prevented.
The decomposed plants and animals may then be available
as fossil fuel in the future for combustion
 Human Intervention in Carbon Cycle
• Clearing trees and other plants that absorb CO2 through
photosynthesis
• Adding large amounts of CO2 by burning fossil fuels and wood
• When humans burn fossil fuels, most of the carbon enters the
atmosphere as carbon dioxide
• If there is too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere it
creates a ‘blanket’. This blanket traps the suns heat inside the
earth’s atmosphere, setting the process of global warming
into action
• The resulting global warming could (1) disrupt global food
production and wildlife habitats and (2) raise the average sea
level in various parts of the world.
 Nitrogen Cycle
• 78% of the air in our atmosphere is made of Nitrogen
• Our body does not use the nitrogen that we inhale
• Our body gets nitrogen from food
• Nitrogen is essential to life because it is necessary for
proteins including DNA
• Organisms cannot use or absorb nitrogen directly
• Some use N in an organic form and others (plants, algae,
bacteria) can take up N either as nitrate ions (NO3), or
the ammonium ion (NH4+)
 Nitrogen Cycle

Five major steps of the nitrogen cycle;

• Nitrogen fixation
– Specialized bacteria convert gaseous nitrogen N2 to ammonia (NH3) that
can be used by plants
• Nitrification
– Ammonia in soil is converted by specialized aero­bic bacteria into nitrite
(NO2-) and nitrate (N03-) ions
• Assimilation
– Plant roots absorb inorganic ammonia, ammonium ions, and nitrate ions
in soil water to make DNA, amino acids, and proteins
 Nitrogen Cycle
• Ammonification
– Specialized decomposer bacteria convert the nitrogen-rich organic
compounds and dead bodies of organisms into ammonia (NH3) and
ammo­nium ions (NH4+)
• Denitrification
– anaerobic bacteria convert NH3 and NH4+ back into nitrite (NO2-) and
nitrate (N03-) ions and then into nitro­gen gas (N2) and nitrous oxide
gas (N20)
 Human Intervene in Nitrogen Cycle
• Burning any fuel adds large amounts of nitric oxide into the atmosphere,
which combines with oxygen to form nitrogen dioxide gas (NO2). It can
react with water vapor to form nitric acid and falls as Acid Rain.
• It can damage and weaken trees, upset water organisms, corrode
metals, and damage marble, stone, and other building materials.
• Application of excessive livestock wastes and commercial inorganic
fertilizers to the soil adds nitrous oxide, which reaches the stratosphere
and depletes earth’s ozone shield
• Excessive nitrogen in water stimulates rapid growth of algae and other
aquatic plants, which reduce oxygen for fishes in water
• Excessive nitrogen in land stimulates the growth of weedy plant species,
which can outgrow and perhaps eliminate other plant species
• Activities like mining, harvesting nitrogen rich crops, burning grasslands
and forests before planting crops etc. removes nitrogen from topsoil