1. The Cycling of Materials

2. Recycling Matters
Unlike the one way flow of energy in an ecosystem (remember food chains, food webs), matter is recycled within and between ecosystems.
Biogeochemical cycles – cycling of matter between the biological, geological and chemical parts of the biosphere.

3. Recycling matters
Matter is transformed into living tissue or passed out of the body as waste.
Brainstorm: What happens when you breathe?

4. Brainstorm Breathe out CO2
Plant takes in CO2 during photosynthesis, making carbohydrates (ex. Fruit)
Fruit (containing carbon) is eaten by a deer
Deer passes the processes food (carbon) out
Dung beetle eats the waste
Shrew eats the beetle
Owl eats the shrew
The carbon that you originally breathed out is not part of the owl.

5. Natures Cycles
Carbon
Nitrogen
Phosphorus
Water

6. Carbon Cycle
Carbon is an essential component of proteins, fats, carbohydrates – the basic ingredients of life.
Key component in carbonates that make bones and shells.

7. Carbon Cycle
All living things are made of carbon. Carbon is also a part of the ocean, air, and even rocks. Because the Earth is a dynamic place, carbon does not stay still. It is on the move!

8. Carbon Cycle
Carbon cycle - the recycling of carbon between the atmosphere, land, water, and organisms.
There are 4 main ways that carbon is cycled in the environment:
Biological
Geochemical
Decomposition
Human activities

9. Carbon Cycle Biological Process:
Respiration – CO2 is released when organisms breathe and is used by plants to produce more plant material
Photosynthesis - Plants take in CO2 and use during photosynthesis to produce sugars and more living tissue

10. Carbon Cycle Geochemical Decomposition
Erosion of soil moves carbon into the waters
Weathering of rocks releases bound carbon.
Volcanic activity releases carbon to the atmosphere, water and land
Decomposition
Dead matter breaks down and releases stored carbon
Fossilized dead plants gives us fuel (coal, petroleum)

11. Carbon Cycle Human Activities:
What human activities do you think influence the carbon cycle?
Burning of fossil fuels (coal, gas)
Mining of fossil fuels
Removal and burning of trees

13. Carbon Cycle

14. 4/23/2017
Carbon Cycle
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and traps heat in the atmosphere. Without it and other greenhouse gases, Earth would be a frozen world.

15. Carbon Cycle - Summary
In the short-term carbon cycle, plants convert carbon
dioxide, CO2, from the atmosphere into carbohydrates.
When organisms’ bodies break down the carbohydrates
and release some of the carbon back into the air as CO2
or through their organic wastes as CO2 or methane, CH4.
In the long-term carbon cycle, carbon is stored in the
geosphere in a type of rock called a carbonate.

16. Nitrogen Cycle
Nitrogen cycle represents one of the most important nutrient cycles found in terrestrial ecosystems.
Nitrogen is used by living organisms to produce a number of complex organic molecules like amino acids, proteins, and nucleic acids.
April 7, 2008

17. N2 N2 N2
Nitrogen Cycle N2 N2
Nitrogen plays an important role in the cycle of life.
The atmosphere is 78% Nitrogen. It exists in the air mainly as a gas (mainly N2). The gaseous form is mainly unusable by most lifeforms.
Other major stores of nitrogen include organic matter in soil and the oceans.

18. Nitrogen Cycle

19. Nitrogen Cycle Sources: Atmosphere Dead and decaying Organic Matter
Human Activities

20. N2 Nitrogen Cycle Atmosphere:
Nitrogen makes up 78% of the earth’s atmosphere, but is unusable to most organisms.
Bacteria that live in the soil and roots of legumes (soybeans), can convert the Nitrogen gas to ammonia. This is called Nitrogen Fixation.
Almost all of the nitrogen found in any terrestrial ecosystem originally came from the atmosphere.

21. Nitrogen Cycle Organic Matter:
Organic nitrogen is converted into inorganic forms when it re-enters the biogeochemical cycle via decomposition (atmosphere).
Decomposers found in the upper soil layer, chemically modify the nitrogen found in organic matter from ammonia (NH3 ) to ammonium (NH4+ ). This process is known as mineralization.

22. Nitrogen Cycle Organic Matter:
In most ecosystems nitrogen is primarily stored in living and dead organims = organic matter.
Animals receive the required nitrogen they need for metabolism, growth, and reproduction by eating.

23. N2
Nitrogen Cycle
Despite its abundance in the atmosphere, nitrogen is often the most limiting nutrient for plant growth. This problem occurs because most plants can only take up nitrogen in two solid forms:
Ammonium (NH4+ )
nitrate (NO3- )
Most plants obtain the nitrogen they
need as inorganic nitrate from the soil solution.

24. Nitrogen Cycle
Members of the bean family (legumes) and some other kinds of plants form mutualistic symbiotic relationships with nitrogen fixing bacteria.
In exchange for some nitrogen, the bacteria receive from the plants carbohydrates and special structures (nodules) in roots where they can exist in a moist environment.
Scientists estimate that biological fixation globally adds approximately 140 million metric tons of nitrogen to ecosystems every year.

25. Nitrogen Cycle Human impacts on the nitrogen cycle:
Over application of Nitrogen fertilizers
Enter groundwater, rivers, streams
Eutrophication – caused by excess N entering waters
Livestock ranching.
Wastes from animals can runoff into waters or leach into groundwater
Sewage waste and septic tank leaching.

26. Nitrogen Cycle - Summary
In the nitrogen cycle, nitrogen moves from the air to soil, soil to plants and animals, and back to air again.
Nitrogen is removed from air mainly by the action of nitrogen- fixing bacteria in the soil.
The nitrogen enters plants, which are eaten by animals.
The nitrogen is returned to the soil by decay and by animal wastes.
Chemical processes that occur in the soil then release the nitrogen back into the air.
Human activities influence the release of Nitrogen into the air or water.

27. Phosphorus Cycle
The phosphorus cycle is the movement of phosphorus from the environment to organisms and back to environment.
This is a slow cycle because it does not occur in the atmosphere.

28. Phosphorus Cycle
Phosphorus (P) is essential for plant growth (DNA/RNA). It stimulates growth of young plants, giving them a good and vigorous start.

29. Phosphorus Cycle
Remains mostly on land as rock, soil minerals and ocean sediment (inorganic phosphate).
Re-enters when rock breaks down/soil erodes
Plants take phosphate from soil or water, plants bind phosphate into organic compounds.
Re-enters from dead and decaying matter

30. Phosphorus Cycle Moves through food web from producers to consumers.
Re-enters cycle from waste products
Phosphorus Impacts:
Phosphorus can build up in soils causes high P-levels in soil.
Runoff in sediment as soil erodes can cause an excess in water (algal blooms).

31. Phosphorus Cycle

32. Phosphorus Cycle - Summary
During the phosphorus cycle, phosphorus moves through every sphere except the atmosphere.
Phosphorus enters soil and water when rock breaks down, when phosphorus in rock dissolves in water, or when organisms excrete phosphorus in their waste.
Plants absorb phosphorus through their roots and incorporate the phosphorus into their tissues.
Animals absorb the phosphorus when they eat the plants. When the animals die, the phosphorus returns to the environment through decomposition.

33. Water Cycle

34. Water Cycle - Summary
The movement of water from the atmosphere to Earth’s surface and back to the atmosphere is called the water cycle.
In the water cycle, water changes from liquid water to water vapor through the energy transfers involved in evaporation and transpiration.
During these processes, water absorbs heat and changes into a gaseous state.
When the water loses energy, it condenses to form water droplets, such as those that form clouds and fall to Earth’s surface as precipitation.

35. Nutrient Limitations
Primary productivity – rate at which organic matter is created by producers.
Controlled by amount of available nutrients
Limiting Nutrient – when a single nutrient is scarce or cycles very slowly in an ecosytem.

36. Nutrient Limitations Three important nutrients – N, P, K
Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium
Farmers/home owners add to ensure crop productivity.
Aquatic system impacts – algal blooms, eutrophication.