1. Earth’s Environmental Systems
Biogeochemical Cycles

2. Rewrite answer for question of the day.
Warm-Up
Rewrite answer for question of the day.
Get out Ogallala Aquifer Case Study!

3. Biogeochemical Cycles
Bio-: Life
Geo-: Earth
Chemical: Substances like compounds or elements
Nutrients cycle through the interactions of living things and earth by going through a series of chemical reactions
Examples: Carbon Cycle, Nitrogen Cycle, Phosphorus Cycle

4. Law of Conservation of Mass
Matter can not be created or destroyed
It just changes form….
Water cycle…changes state
Biogeochemical cycles….changes into different compounds through different types of reactions

5. Water Cycle

6. Anthropogenic Effects on the Water Cycle
Anthropogenic: Human effects
Decrease surface and groundwater through overuse
Decrease surface and groundwater due to climate change (especially areas in severe drought)
Decrease in precipitation due to deforestation
No transpiration from trees creating clouds….precipitation
Freshwater quality decreased due to runoff of chemicals, fertilizers, etc.
Increase in impermeable surfaces (roads, urbanization)
Desalination plants (distillation or reverse osmosis) creating freshwater from saltwater

7. Let’s make sure you understand!!!
With your group…draw the water cycle using the following terms.
Evaporation
Condensation
Precipitation
Runoff
Infiltration
Groundwater
Plant uptake
Transpiration
Surface water

8. Nutrients Matter that organisms require for their life processes.
Macronutrients vs. Micronutrients
Nutrients required in
Large amounts like
Carbon, Oxygen,
Nitrogen and Phosphorus
Nutrients required in
Small amounts like
Potassium, Calcium,
Iron, etc.

9. Producer vs. Consumer
Primary producers produce their own food via photosynthesis
Plants, algae, phytoplankton (phyto- = plant)
Consumers are organisms that must eat (consume) other organisms (plant or animal) to obtain nutrients
Mostly animals
Decomposers are organisms that break down wastes and dead organisms
Bacteria and fungi

10. Ten Percent Rule

11. Food chains/Food webs
All of the substances that make up an organism is made of carbon…where does it come from?
Depends on what type of organism you are….

12. Food chains/Food webs

13. Carbon Cycle Also includes oxygen
Needed for energy
Also includes oxygen
Carbon is found in most of the compounds on earth…plastic, gasoline, carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, etc….
A couple things to know in order to understand this cycle….
Food chains/Food webs
Producers, Consumers, and Decomposers
Photosynthesis
Respiration
Combustion
Decomposition
Fossil Fuels
Carbon Sinks vs. Carbon sources

14. Photosynthesis
Producers use solar energy to convert CO2 from the air into a usable form of carbon (glucose) that organisms can use for energy
(glucose)

15. Cellular respiration
Process by which ALL organisms use oxygen to release the chemical energy of sugars (glucose)

16. Decomposition All organisms die…where does their carbon go?
To the soil and eventually into rock (limestone) or as fossil fuels (coal or petroleum)

17. Fossil Fuels and Combustion
Fossil fuels are used by humans for energy through a process called combustion
This releases CO2 back into the atmosphere

18. Think about it….
Why are fossil fuels called “ancient sunlight”?

19. Fossil Fuels Include coal, oil, and natural gas
Formed from the remains of organisms over millions of years
Called “ancient sunlight” because the stored chemical energy in fossil fuels ultimately came from electromagnetic energy from the sun
Different conditions produce different fossil fuels

20. Coal
Formed from plant remains subjected to high heat and pressures over millions of years
Provides 1/4 of the world’s energy
Compared to other fossil fuels, coal is cheap, needs little processing, and is easy to transport.
How Coal Forms
Did You Know? Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel on Earth.

21. Oil Dark, liquid fossil fuel made up mostly of hydrocarbons
Formed from the remains of ancient marine organisms and found in underground deposits
Used in fuel for cars, trucks, planes, ships
Used in chemical compounds like plastics (petrochemicals)
Also know as petroleum
Must be refined to be usable

22. Refining Oil…Fractional Distillation

23. Natural Gas
Primarily methane gas with small amounts of other gases mixed in
Often found above oil or coal deposits
Much less polluting than coal or oil and releases more energy when combusted
Used for heating, appliances (stoves, dryers), and making electricity

24. Fracking Gasland Video Clips….
Fracking

26. Oil or Tar Sands
Oil Shale
Methane Hydrate

27. Carbon Sinks vs. Carbon Sources
Sinks: Holds Carbons
Limestone and other sedimentary rock
Ocean
Plants: Land and Marine (phytoplankton/algae)
Permafrost: permanently frozen land
Sources: Releases Carbon back to atmosphere
Combustion: transportation, industry, etc.
Respiration
Volcanoes

30. Warm-Up Rewrite answer to the question of the day. EDMODO!!!
Get out Carbon Cycle Paper. We will discuss before you turn it in.
Haiti Video
Get out your Nitrogen Cycle Case Study.

31. Nitrogen Cycle Most abundant gas in atmosphere
Needed for proteins
Most abundant gas in atmosphere
Atmospheric nitrogen is unusable
Relies on bacteria to make it usable
Think…
Fertilizer
Legumes
Food chains
Bacteria: nitrogen fixation
Nitrification vs. Denitrofication
Lightning
Eutrophication

32. Nitrogen “fixing”
Nitrogen fixation: Conversion of nitrogen gas (N2) to ammonia (usable by plants)
Lightning
Nitrogen-fixing bacteria (found naturally in soil or in root nodules of legumes)
Nitrification: bacteria convert ammonia (NH3) into nitrites (NO2) then into nitrates (NO3)
Denitrification: denitrifying bacteria convert nitrates back into nitrogen gas (N2)

34. Anthropogenic Impacts
Use of fertilizer leads to eutrophication
Release of Nitrous oxide from waterlogged soils (inefficient irrigation)
Ammonia emissions from poultry
Nitrous oxides from burning of fossil fuels lead to acid deposition and formation of tropospheric ozone.

35. Ammonia emissions

36. Nitrous Oxides

37. Nitrogen Dioxide

38. Phosphorus Cycle Only involves the lithosphere (land)
Needed to
make
DNA and RNA
Only involves the lithosphere (land)
No atmospheric form
Think…
Fertilizer
Food chains
Runoff
Eutrophication

39. Phosphorus is bound up in rocks
Low amounts
Limiting factor of plant growth
Not needed as much as nitrogen…hangs out in water ways
Reason why it is main culprit of eutrophication

41. Eutrophication The effect is an overgrowth of producers (algae)
Eutrophication
Dead Zones Come Alive
The effect is an overgrowth of producers (algae)
Caused by runoff from fertilizer (high in nitrogen and phosphorus) as well as wastewater (phosphorus is found in detergents)
Can lead to hypoxia (low oxygen levels) from bacteria decomposing all the dead producers

43. Sulfur Cycle

44. Anthropogenic Impacts
Burning of fossil fuels (especially coal) puts Sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfides into atmosphere. Sulfur dioxide and Hydrogen sulfides make Sulfuric acid leading to acid deposition. Acids dissolve metals, limestone structures and reduce soil/water pH in areas that do not have a buffering capacity.

45. Secondary Nutrients Potassium Calcium Iron
Comes from weathered mineral salts
Needed for nerve function
Calcium
Needed for plant growth and shell formation
Iron
Needed for photosynthesis and transporting oxygen in blood