1. Matter Cycles!
AKA: Nutrient Cycles
All matter essential for life moves in cycles between living things & the environment
Examples of cycles:
carbon cycle
water cycle
nitrogen cycle

2. The basic building block of organic compounds essential for life.
What is Carbon
The basic building block of organic compounds essential for life.

3. Why is carbon important to us?
Carbon Cycle
Why is carbon important to us?
1) Carbon is used to make hair, muscle, & skin
2) Carbon stores energy so living things can think, move, etc
3) Fossil fuels (gas, coal, oil) are made from carbon

4. Where is carbon found in the environment?
atmospheric gas (CO2)
rocks (limestone, diamonds)
fossil fuels (oil, coal, etc.)

5. How does carbon enter living things?
1) CO2 gas enters plants
2) Photosynthesis allows plants to change CO2 into a sugar
3) Animals then get carbon by eating the sugar found in plants

6. How does carbon get back into the environment?
1. Plants & animals release CO2 during respiration
2. Burning of wood & fossil fuels
3. Using electricity, (most power plants use fossil fuels)
4. Cow farts (seriously)
5. Decomposition when bacteria and fungus break down tissue of dead things

7. How are fossil fuels formed?
When living things die & fall to the bottom of water, they are buried & compressed 
They eventually form coal, petroleum, or natural gas

8. the 2 main steps are photosynthesis & respiration!
So what’s the cycle?
the 2 main steps are photosynthesis & respiration!

9. The Carbon Cycle The movement of carbon through the environment
2 major driving forces
Photosynthesis- plants and algae take up CO2 from the air or water to make sugar
Cellular Respiration- consumers use sugar for energy and release CO2 into the air or water

10. Due to humans using more fossil fuels, more CO2 is released each year
Future Predictions
Due to humans using more fossil fuels, more CO2 is released each year
this may result in global warming since CO2 traps heat (remember the greenhouse effect)

11. What is global warming?

12. Facts about Nitrogen 78% of air is nitrogen gas (N2)
Living things can’t use nitrogen when it’s a gas (N2)

13. Why do living things need Nitrogen?
To make amino acids & proteins
To make DNA

14. Nitrogen gas (N2) is found in the atmosphere
The Nitrogen Cycle
Step #1
Nitrogen gas (N2) is found in the atmosphere

15. Step #2
”Nitrogen Fixation”: Bacteria living at the roots change the N2 gas into a usable form like ammonia or nitrates
Lightning also “fixes” nitrogen

16. Step #3 Step #4 Plants then use the ammonia or nitrates in the soil
Animals get nitrogen from plants by eating them

17. Step #5
When plants & animals die, the nitrogen in them is released back into the atmosphere as a gas (N2)

18. What are the two process that are responsible; for cycling Carbon in the environment? What things add carbon? Which things take it away?
Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration
Photosynthesis : take it away
Cellular Respiration, Fossil Fuels and Decaying organisms add it.

19. Water Cycle
The movement of water from the atmosphere to Earth’s Surface and back to the atmosphere.
Evaporation and Transpiration (plant sweating): changes liquid water into water vapor.
Water goes from Earth to the atmosphere.
Condensation: changes water vapor into water droplets (clouds).
Precipitation: Water goes from the atmosphere to Earth.
Rain, snow or hail