1. Cycles of Matter
Unlike the one-way flow of energy, matter is recycled within and between ecosystems.
These cycles are the water cycle, Nutrient Cycle, Carbon Cycle, nitrogen cycle and phosphorus cycle.

2. Carbon Cycle

3. Water Cycle

4. Nitrogen Cycle

5. Oxygen Carbon Cycle

6. PHOSPHORUS CYCLE (see fig.3-15)
PHOSPHORUS FORMS PART OF IMPORTANT LIFE-SUSTAINING MOLECULES (ex. DNA & RNA)

7. Phosphorus (P) is another one of the essential elements that cycle through the ecosystem. It is an element that is found in the ground and then taken up by plants and animals.
Phosphorus starts its existence as phosphate ions (PO4) in the rocks of the world. When it rains, the phosphates and other minerals are removed from the rocks and distributed in soils and the water all over the planet

8. Plants on land take in the inorganic (compounds without carbon) phosphorus compounds from the soil.
The phosphorus atoms are then incorporated into many organic compounds that are used in cells.
Animals can get their phosphorus by eating plants or drinking water.
Algae and water plants are able to absorb the ions from the water. Unlike carbon and nitrogen, the phosphorus cycle is not a true cycle. There is a great deal of phosphorus lost.

9. Phosphorus has a tendency to wind up at the bottom of the ocean.
Once at the bottom, the phosphate ions are lost to the world. Sometimes the phosphates are found in runoff water and go to the bottom and sometimes human poop contains phosphate and those phosphates are returned to the ocean.
The problem is that all usable phosphorus sources are on the surface The atoms are useless once they reach the bottom of the ocean. Slowly but surely the surface of the Earth is running out of easy places to find phosphorus.

10. Why is there a sudden concern
Why is there a sudden concern? Phosphorus only gets into the soil by the weathering process on rocks. When plants die in the natural world, the phosphates return to the soil. In farming, the crops are taken away and then over many years the soil runs out of phosphorus compounds. We have created a situation where we must artificially replenish the nutrients in the land. Phosphorus is heavily used in the farming industry and fertilizers filled with phosphates are used all over the world to help plants grow.

11. PHOSPHORUS CYCLE (see fig.3-15)
PHOSPHORUS FORMS PART OF IMPORTANT LIFE-SUSTAINING MOLECULES (ex. DNA & RNA)

12. Phosphorus Cycle Terms
Phosphate – PO43-
Weathering -The breakdown of rocks into smaller rocks and soil
Sedimentation – The act or process of depositing sediment.
Geological uplift - lift up from the earth, as by geologic forces – makes mountains

13. The Carbon Cycle

14. The geological carbon cycle:
The geological component of the carbon cycle is where it interacts with the rock cycle in the processes of weathering and dissolution, precipitation of minerals, burial and subduction, and volcanism.

15. Draw the cycle on the board
In the atmosphere, carbonic acid forms by a reaction with atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and water.
As this weakly acidic water reaches the earth as rain, it reacts with minerals at the earth’s surface, slowly dissolving them into their component ions through the process of chemical weathering.

16. These component ions are carried in surface waters like streams and rivers eventually to the ocean, where they precipitate out as minerals like calcium carbonate (CaCO3).
Through continued deposition and burial, this carbonate sediment forms the rock called limestone (Carbonate formation).

17. This cycle continues as seafloor spreading pushes the seafloor under continental margins in the process of subduction.
As seafloor carbon is pushed deeper into the earth by tectonic forces, it heats up, eventually melts, and can rise back up to the surface, where it is released as CO2 and returned to the atmosphere.

18. The Biological carbon cycle

19. The Biological carbon cycle
Biology plays an important role in the movement of carbon between land, ocean, and atmosphere through the processes of photosynthesis and respiration.
Virtually all multicellular life on Earth depends on the production of sugars from sunlight and carbon dioxide (photosynthesis) and the metabolic breakdown (respiration) of those sugars to produce the energy needed for movement, growth, and reproduction.

20. Plants take in carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere during photosynthesis, and release CO2 back into the atmosphere during respiration through the following chemical reactions:
Respiration: C6H12O6 (organic matter) + 6O2 6CO2 + 6 H2O + energy
Photosynthesis: energy (sunlight) + 6CO2 + H2O C6H12O6 + 6O2

21. Through photosynthesis, green plants use solar energy to turn atmospheric carbon dioxide into carbohydrates (sugars). Plants and animals use these carbohydrates (and other products derived from them) through a process called respiration, the reverse of photosynthesis

22. Respiration releases the energy contained in sugars for use in metabolism and changes carbohydrate “fuel” back into carbon dioxide, which is in turn released to back to the atmosphere.
Carbon dioxide is produced by all animals, plants, fungi and microorganisms during respiration and is used by plants during photosynthesis

23. The Carbon Cycle

24. Carbon dioxide is produced by all animals, plants, fungi and microorganisms during respiration and is used by plants during photosynthesis
Carbon dioxide is generated as a by-product of the combustion of fossil fuels or the burning of vegetable matter, among other chemical processes.
Contributes to Global warming!!!

25. Carbon Cycle Terms Carbon dioxide – CO2 – what we breathe out
Oxygen – O2 – what plants produce through photosynthesis – need it to breathe
Photosynthesis – plants make carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and water

26. Respiration - The act of inhaling and exhaling air in order to exchange oxygen for carbon dioxide.
Decomposition – to break down – decompose
Volcanic Activity – volcano releasing CO2
Carbonate formation – formation of carbonate rocks like limestone

27. Combustion – burning fossil fuels to release energy
Carbonate – A group of minerals, all containing the carbonate radical (CO32-)

28. View Carbon cycle animation
carbon_cycle_version2.swf

29. THE NITROGEN CYCLE

30. The Nitrogen Cycle
All life requires nitrogen-compounds, e.g., proteins and nucleic acids.
Air, which is 79% nitrogen gas (N2), is the major reservoir of nitrogen.
But most organisms cannot use nitrogen in this form.
Plants must secure their nitrogen in "fixed" form, i.e., incorporated in compounds such as:
nitrate ions (NO3−)
ammonia (NH3)
urea (NH2)2CO
Animals secure their nitrogen (and all other) compounds from plants (or animals that have fed on plants).

31. Four processes participate in the cycling of nitrogen through the biosphere:
nitrogen fixation
decay
nitrification
denitrification
Microorganisms play major roles in all four of these.

32. Nitrogen Fixation
The nitrogen molecule (N2) is quite inert. To break it apart so that its atoms can combine with other atoms requires the input of substantial amounts of energy.
Three processes are responsible for most of the nitrogen fixation in the biosphere:
atmospheric fixation by lightning
biological fixation by certain microbes — alone or in a symbiotic relationship with some plants and animals
industrial fixation

33. Atmospheric Fixation
The enormous energy of lightning breaks nitrogen molecules and enables their atoms to combine with oxygen in the air forming nitrogen oxides. These dissolve in rain, forming nitrates, that are carried to the earth.

34. Biological Fixation
The ability to fix nitrogen is found only in certain bacteria some of which live in a symbiotic relationship with plants or animals.
Some nitrogen-fixing bacteria live free in the soil.
Nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria are essential to maintaining the fertility of semi-aquatic environments like rice paddies.

35. Decay
The proteins made by plants enter and pass through food webs just as carbohydrates do. At each trophic level, their metabolism produces organic nitrogen compounds that return to the environment, chiefly in excretions. The final beneficiaries of these materials are microorganisms of decay. They break down the molecules in excretions and dead organisms into ammonia.

36. Nitrification
Ammonia (NH3)can be taken up directly by plants — usually through their roots. However, most of the ammonia produced by decay is converted into nitrates. This is accomplished in two steps:
Bacteria oxidize Ammonia to nitrites (NO2−) which are oxidized into nitrates (NO3−).

37. Denitrification
Denitrification - anaerobic bacteria reduce nitrates to nitrogen gas, thus replenishing the atmosphere.

39. Nitrogen Cycle Terms Nitrate – NO3- Nitrite – NO2- Ammonium – NH4+
Nitrogen Gas – N2
Nitrogen fixation -How nitrogen gets "fixed" by bacteria to become available for plants on earth
Bacteria -are single-celled microorganisms
Lightning - electrical storms

40. Nitrification - the biological oxidation of ammonia with oxygen into nitrite followed by the oxidation of these nitrites into nitrates
Denitrification- bacteria break down nitrates to give nitrogen gas, which returns to the atmosphere
Decomposition – breaking down dead material

41. Nitrogen cycle animation
ncycle[1].swf