Biogeochemical Cycles

BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES
The cycling of chemical elements required by life between the living and nonliving parts of the environment. Some examples of these chemical elements are H2O, P, S, N2, O2 and C.

These elements cycle in either a gas cycle or a sedimentary cycle; some cycle as both a gas and sediment.

In a gas cycle elements move through the atmosphere. Main reservoirs are the atmosphere and the ocean. In a sedimentary cycle elements move from land to water to sediment. Main reservoirs are the soil and sedimentary rocks.
Gas Cycles: Sedimentary Cycles:

Carbon Nitrogen Oxygen

Phosphorus Sulfur

What are biogeochemical cycles?

Earth system has four parts
Atmosphere Hydrosphere Lithosphere Biosphere

Biogeochemical cycles: The chemical interactions (cycles) that exist between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere. Abiotic (physio-chemical) and biotic processes drive these cycles

The Carbon Cycle

Carbon is an element. It is part of oceans, air, rocks, soil and all living things. Carbon doesnt stay in one place.

In the atmosphere, carbon is attached to oxygen in a gas called carbon dioxide (CO2). With the help of the Sun, through the process of photosynthesis, carbon dioxide is pulled from the air to make plant food from carbon.

Carbon moves from the atmosphere to plants.

Carbon moves from plants to animals. Through food chains, the carbon that is in plants moves to the animals that eat them. Animals that eat other animals get the carbon from their food too. Carbon moves from plants and animals to the ground. When plants and animals die, their bodies, wood and leaves decay bringing the carbon into the ground. Some becomes buried miles underground and will become fossil fuels in millions and millions of years.

Carbon moves from living things to the atmosphere. Each time you exhale, you are releasing carbon dioxide gas (CO2) into the atmosphere. Animals and plants get rid of carbon dioxide gas through a process called respiration. Carbon moves from the atmosphere to the oceans.

The oceans, and other bodies of water, soak up some carbon from the atmosphere.

Carbon moves from fossil fuels to the atmosphere when fuels are burned. When humans burn fossil fuels to power factories, power plants, cars and trucks, most of the carbon quickly enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide gas. Each year, five and a half billion tons of carbon is released by burning fossil fuels. Thats the weight of 100 million adult African elephants! Of the huge amount of carbon that is released from fuels, 3.3 billion tons enters the atmosphere and most of the rest becomes dissolved in seawater.

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and traps heat in the atmosphere. Without it and other greenhouse gases, Earth would be a frozen world. But humans have burned so much fuel that there is about 30% more carbon dioxide in the air today than there was about 150 years ago. The atmosphere has not held this much carbon for at least 420,000 years according to data from ice cores. More greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide in our atmosphere are causing our planet to become warmer.

The Nitrogen Cycle

It is found in living things like plants and animals. It is also an important part of non-living things like the air above and the dirt below. Atoms of nitrogen don't just stay in one place. They move slowly between living things, dead things, the air, soil and water. These movements are called the nitrogen cycle.

Nitrogen-containing nutrients in the biosphere include: 1) Ammonia (NH3) 2) Nitrate (NO3-) 3) Nitrite (NO2-) ORGANISMS NEED NITROGEN TO MAKE AMINO ACIDS FOR BUILDING PROTEINS

Most of the nitrogen on Earth is in the atmosphere. Approximately 80% of the molecules in Earth's atmosphere are made of two nitrogen atoms bonded together (N2). All plants and animals need nitrogen to make amino acids, proteins and DNA, but the nitrogen in the atmosphere is not in a form that they can use. The molecules of nitrogen in the atmosphere can become usable for living things when they are broken apart during lightning strikes or fires, by certain types of bacteria, or by bacteria associated with bean plants.

Most plants get the nitrogen they need to grow from the soils or water in which they live. Animals get the nitrogen they need by eating plants or other animals that contain nitrogen. When organisms die, their bodies decompose bringing the nitrogen into soil on land or into ocean water. Bacteria alter the nitrogen into a form that plants are able to use. Other types of bacteria are able to change nitrogen dissolved in waterways into a form that allows it to return to the atmosphere.

Certain actions of humans are causing changes to the nitrogen cycle and the amount of nitrogen that is stored in the land, water, air, and organisms. The use of nitrogen-rich fertilizers can add too much nitrogen in nearby waterways as the fertilizer washes into streams and ponds. The waste associated with livestock farming also adds large amounts of nitrogen into soil and water. The increased nitrate levels cause plants to grow rapidly until they use up the supply and die. The number of plant-eating animals will increase when the plant supply increases and then the animals are left without any food when the plants die.

Nitrogen Fixation Methods:

High energy fixation- a small amount of atmospheric nitrogen is fixed by lightening. The high energy combines N and H2O resulting in ammonia (NH3) and nitrates (NO3). These forms are carried to Earth in precipitation.

Biological fixation: achieves 90% of the nitrogen fixation. Atmospheric nitrogen (N2) is split and combined with hydrogen (H) atoms to form ammonia (NH3).

Who performs nitrogen fixation?

Symbiotic bacteria (eg. Rhizobium spp.) living in association with leguminous ( plants in the pea family), and root-noduled non- leguminous plants (eg. Alnus spp.). - free-living anaerobic bacteria - blue-green algae (cyanobacteria)

Nitrogen fixation: is the sequestration of inorganic N into organic compound Denitrification: is the releasing of nitrogen into free or molecular nitrogen

N fixation bacteria : Azotobacter sp. Clostridium sp. Rhizobium sp. N2 is converted to NH3 (amonia) NH3 is converted to NO2- by bacteria (Nitrosomonas and Nitrococcus) NO2- is converted to NO3- by bacteri Nitrobacter

Oxygen Cycle
Oxygen exists in our modern atmosphere in great amounts. Approximately 21% of the atmosphere is comprised of oxygen. Oxygen is highly reactive. As the oxygen in our atmosphere interacts with other substances, it often bonds to them, becoming trapped. Many life forms also remove oxygen from the atmosphere, as they breath. This oxygen is used by these life forms to carry out the functions of life.

Sources of Oxygen:
photo disassociation of H2O vapor photosynthesis

Since oxygen is so reactive its cycling is complex:

1) As a constituent of CO2 it circulates freely throughout the biosphere. 2) Some CO2 combines with Ca to form carbonates. 3) O2 combines with nitrogen compounds to form nitrates. 4) O2 combines with iron compounds to form ferric oxides. 5) Photosynthesis and respiration 6) O2 in the troposphere is reduced to O3 (ozone). Ground level O3 is a pollutant which damages lungs.

Phosphorus
Phosphorus is an essential nutrient for plants and animals in the form of ions PO43- and HPO42-. It is a part of DNA-molecules, of molecules that store energy (ATP and ADP) and of fats of cell membranes. Phosphorus is also a building block of certain parts of the human and animal body, such as the bones and teeth. Phosphorus can be found on earth in water, soil and sediments. Unlike the compounds of other matter cycles phosphorus cannot be found in air in the gaseous state. This is because phosphorus is usually liquid at normal temperatures and pressures

It is mainly cycling through water, soil and sediments. In the atmosphere phosphorus can mainly be found as very small dust particles. Phosphorus moves slowly from deposits on land and in sediments, to living organisms, and than much more slowly back into the soil and water sediment. The phosphorus cycle is the slowest one of the matter cycles.

Phosphorus is most commonly found in rock formations and ocean sediments as phosphate salts. Phosphate salts that are released from rocks through weathering usually dissolve in soil water and will be absorbed by plants. Because the quantities of phosphorus in soil are generally small, it is often the limiting factor for plant growth. That is why humans often apply phosphate fertilizers on farmland. Phosphates are also limiting factors for plant-growth in marine ecosystems, because they are not very water-soluble. Animals absorb phosphates by eating plants or plant-eating animals.

Phosphorus cycles through plants and animals much faster than it does through rocks and sediments. When animals and plants die, phosphates will return to the soils or oceans again during decay. After that, phosphorus will end up in sediments or rock formations again, remaining there for millions of years. Eventually, phosphorus is released again through weathering and the cycle starts over.

The phosphorus cycle occurs when phosphorus moves from land to sediments in the seas and then back to land again. The main storage for phosphorus is in the earths crust. On land phosphorus is usually found in the form of phosphates. By the process of weathering and erosion phosphates enter rivers and streams that transport them to the ocean. Once in the ocean the phosphorus accumulates on continental shelves in the form of insoluble deposits. After millions of years, the crustal plates rise from the sea floor and expose the phosphates on land. After more time, weathering will release them from rock and the cycle's geochemical phase begins again.

Sulfur Cycle
Sulfur is one of the components that make up proteins and vitamins. Proteins consist of amino acids that contain sulfur atoms. Sulfur is important for the functioning of proteins and enzymes in plants, and in animals that depend upon plants for sulfur. Plants absorb sulfur when it is dissolved in water. Animals consume these plants, so that they take up enough sulfur to maintain their health.

Most of the earth's sulfur is tied up in rocks and salts or buried deep in the ocean in oceanic sediments. Sulfur can also be found in the atmosphere. It enters the atmosphere through both natural and human sources. Natural recourses can be for instance volcanic eruptions, bacterial processes, evaporation from water, or decaying organisms. When sulfur enters the atmosphere through human activity, this is mainly a consequence of industrial processes where sulfur dioxide (SO2) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gases are emitted on a wide scale.

When sulfur dioxide enters the atmosphere it will react with oxygen to produce sulfur trioxide gas (SO3), or with other chemicals in the atmosphere, to produce sulfur salts. Sulfur dioxide may also react with water to produce sulfuric acid (H2SO4). Sulfuric acid may also be produced from demethylsulfide, which is emitted to the atmosphere by plankton species. All these particles will settle back onto earth, or react with rain and fall back onto earth as acid deposition. The particles will than be absorbed by plants again and are released back into the atmosphere, so that the sulfur cycle will start over again.

Biogeochemical cycles and life : Limiting factors

For life forms to persist, certain chemicals must be available, at certain times, if not a certain chemical can become a limiting factor in an ecosystem

Examples : N : plants with abnormally yellow leaves likely have a nitrogen deficiency P : often limiting for algal and plant growth

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