BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES Law of Conservation of Matter matter

BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES • Law of Conservation of Matter – matter cannot be created or destroyed but it can be rearranged • Matter is constantly moving between the living and nonliving world.

Questions to answer: • How are the cycles for different kinds of matter similar? How are they different? • 1. 2. 3. 4. What cycles do I need to know? Water cycle (hydrologic) Carbon cycle Nitrogen cycle Phosphorus

Questions to answer: • What processes move matter (nutrients) through the ecosystem and biosphere? • Bio = life • Geo = earth • Chem = chemical

• Questions to answer: What do I already know about this? MATTER? Examples: Pathway: PROCESSES?

Vocabulary Recall • • Organic compound – contains carbon, large molecules; ex. carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, nucleic acids Inorganic compound – small molecules, do not need to contain carbon; ex. water, carbon dioxide

Vocabulary Recall • • Biotic factor – a living thing, ex. plant, animal, fungus, protist, bacterium Abiotic factor – a nonliving thing, ex. light, moisture, wind, temperature

GENERAL MODEL OF NUTRIENT CYCLING Organic materials: available as nutrients Organic material: unavailable as nutrients • Biotic: living things, detritus (decaying organic matter) • Coal, oil, peat Inorganic materials: available as nutrients • Abiotic: soil, atmosphere, water Inorganic materials: unavailable as nutrients • Minerals in rocks

RESERVOIR • Areas in the environment where significant amounts of an element are found • Ex. one of nitrogen’s reservoirs is the atmosphere • Ex. one of carbon’s reservoir is the bodies of living things HOW did I represent the reservoirs in the previous slides?

PROCESS: PHOTOSYNTHESIS • A complex series of chemical reactions carried out by plants and algae • Requires chlorophyll (a green pigment) and chloroplasts (organelles within cells) • Organic compounds such as GLUCOSE are built from inorganic compounds – WATER AND CARBON DIOXIDE • LIGHT supplies the ENERGY for this REARRANGEMENT OF MATTER

PROCESS: PHOTOSYNTHESIS LIGHT 6 CO 2 + 6 H 2 O C 6 H 12 O 6 + 6 O 2 carbon water glucose oxygen dioxide (food)

PROCESS: PHOTOSYNTHESIS LIGHT 6 CO 2 + 6 H 2 O C 6 H 12 O 6 + 6 O 2 carbon water glucose oxygen dioxide (food) reactants products

PROCESS: RESPIRATION • Complex series of chemical reactions carried out by all cells • Requires mitochondria (organelles within cells) • FOOD (organic compounds such as GLUCOSE) is broken down into inorganic compounds – WATER AND CARBON • Potential ENERGY stored in chemical bonds of food is TRANSFERRED to a form cells can use for energy - a molecule called ATP

PROCESS: RESPIRATION C 6 H 12 O 6 + 6 O 2 6 CO 2 + 6 H 2 O glucose oxygen carbon water (food) dioxide reactants products Does this look familiar?

PROCESS: RESPIRATION CELLULAR RESPIRATION is NOT THE SAME THING AS BREATHING.

PROCESS: DECOMPOSITION • Series of chemical reactions in which decomposers break down large organic compounds into smaller inorganic compounds • The decomposers – FUNGI AND BACTERIA – are using dead organisms for food • THEREFORE, the decomposers and fungi are carrying out CELLULAR RESPIRATION!

PROCESSES: EXCRETION • WASTE PRODUCTS • Examples: urine, feces

PROCESSES: FOSSILIZATION • Fossils - remains of organisms that lived in the past • In the case of coal and oil, plants died and were covered by sediments • Heat, pressure, and time released most of the elements except CARBON AND HYDORGEN • Coal and oil are “hydrocarbons” – they contain carbon and hydrogen that was once in a plant (Where were C & H before they were in the plant? )

PROCESSES: ROCK FORMATION, EROSION, WEATHERING • Rock Formation – when layers of sediments are placed under pressure for long periods of time sedimentary rock forms • Weathering – “BREAK DOWN” - wind, water, freezing and thawing, and chemical processes break rock back down into sediments