1. The Nitrogen Cycle
Year 10 Chemistry

2. Success Criteria By the end of this lesson you will be able to:
Understand what the Nitrogen Cycle is.
Represent the Nitrogen Cycle visually.
Explain how humans can impact upon the Nitrogen Cycle

4. The Nitrogen Cycle

5. The Nitrogen Cycle…

6. Lightning has a role…

8. About the Nitrogen Cycle…
In most ecosystems nitrogen is primarily stored in living and dead organic matter.
This organic nitrogen is converted into inorganic forms when it re-enters the cycle via deomposition
Nitrogen is arguably the most important nutrient in regulating primary productivity and species diversity in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems

9. Human Alterations to the Nitrogen Cycle
Burning fossil fuels, application of nitrogen-based fertilizers, and other activities can dramatically increase the amount of biologically available nitrogen in an ecosystem.
Nitrogen availability often limits the primary productivity of many ecosystems, big changes in nitrogen levels lead to severe alterations of the nitrogen cycle in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
Industrial nitrogen fixation has increased exponentially since the 1940s, and human activity has doubled the amount of global nitrogen fixation 

10. Human Impacts on the Nitrogen Cycle
Some of the major processes involved in this alteration include:
Adding Nitrogen fertilizers to crops increased rates of denitrification and leaching of nitrate into groundwater. This eventually flows into streams, rivers, lakes, and estuaries. In these systems, the added nitrogen can lead to eutrophication.
Fossil fuel combustion and forest burning both release a variety of solid forms of nitrogen through combustion.
Livestock release a large amounts of ammonia into the environment from their wastes. This nitrogen enters the soil system and groundwater flow, and runoff.
Sewage waste and septic tank leaching.

11. Your Task… You are to create an annotated map of the Nitrogen Cycle
You need to label the type of Nitrogen at each stage.
You need to describe each process
You need to show which areas human activity has an impact on.