LESSON 4: BIOGEOCHEMICAL
CYCLES
Ecology is all about interaction. Biotic factors (living things) interact with abiotic
factors (nonliving
things) in order for life to exist and continue thriving throughout time. Living
organisms
both need energy and nutrients to keep their internal metabolic processes
working within optimum
limits for their continuous survival.
Our planet is composed of matter, which is made up of different substances that
constitute to the
chemical basis of life. Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen elements makes
most of the
biomolecules essential to life. These substances keep on cycling all around
Earth’s biosphere to
ensure their availability for all-natural purposes required in sustaining and
maintaining life.
Without these cycles, life will not be able to continue and move forward. The
dependence of living
things to these cycles is equivalent to a life support. Oxygen gas for instance
helps in running
internal metabolic processes within our cells to transform chemical energy into
mechanical
activities within our bodies. Every cycle is indispensable in nature and humans
must understand
that ordinary man-made activities can create a big impact on the manner of
how matter naturally
cycles within our planet.
Figure 5. Plants are producers; animals are consumers; fungi and
microorganisms such as bacteria
are decomposers. (Image credit: Biogeochemical cycles: Figure 1 by Eva Horne and Robert A.
Bear; source article
is CC BY 4.0)
The different biogeochemical cycles are best understood through an illustration.
Arrows present
movement of how each substance transform into another until it becomes the
same substance
again. You need to take note that one form of substance cannot be readily used
by a particular
organism that is why it has to be transformed within the cycle either by
chemical process or by
the help of an organism.
A. Carbon Cycle. Carbon makes up most of the organic compounds found in
living organisms.
At the same time, we get energy from fossil fuels that are extracted from the
planet and its
mainly composed of carbon.
Carbon is an essential element for all life forms on Earth. Whether these
life forms take in carbon to help manufacture food or release carbon as
part of respiration, the intake and output of carbon is a component of all
plant and animal life.
Carbon is in a constant state of movement from place to place. It is
stored in what are known as reservoirs, and it moves between
these reservoirs through a variety of processes, including photosynthesis,
burning fossil fuels, and simply releasing breath from the lungs. The
movement of carbon from reservoir to reservoir is known as the carbon
cycle.
Carbon can be stored in a variety of reservoirs, including plants and
animals, which is why they are considered carbon life forms. Carbon is
used by plants to build leaves and stems, which are then digested by
animals and used for cellular growth. In the atmosphere, carbon is stored
in the form of gases, such as carbon dioxide. It is also stored in oceans,
captured by many types of marine organisms. Some organisms, such as
clams or coral, use the carbon to form shells and skeletons. Most of
the carbon on the planet is contained within rocks, minerals, and other
sediment buried beneath the surface of the planet.
Because Earth is a closed system, the amount of carbon on the planet
never changes. However, the amount of carbon in a
specific reservoir can change over time as carbon moves from
one reservoir to another. For example, some carbon in
the atmosphere might be captured by plants to make food
during photosynthesis. This carbon can then be ingested and stored in
animals that eat the plants. When the animals die, they decompose, and
their remains become sediment, trapping the stored carbon in layers that
eventually turn into rock or minerals. Some of this sediment might
form fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, or natural gas, which
release carbon back into the atmosphere when the fuel is burned.
The carbon cycle is vital to life on Earth. Nature tends to
keep carbon levels balanced, meaning that the amount
of carbon naturally released from reservoirs is equal to the amount that is
naturally absorbed by reservoirs. Maintaining this carbon balance allows
the planet to remain hospitable for life. Scientists believe that humans
have upset this balance by burning fossil fuels, which has added
more carbon to the atmosphere than usual and led to climate change and
global warming.
Figure 6. Carbon Cycle. Carbon element is present in various substances and
materials like carbon
dioxide gas and fossil fuels.
(Image credit: Biogeochemical cycles: Figure 3 by OpenStax College, Biology, CC BY 4.0;
modification of work by
John M. Evans and Howard Perlman, USGS)
Carbon element is essential as it comprises most of the organic substances
found in living
organisms. Biomolecules such as carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic
acids contain
significant amount of this element in their structure.
Carbon is also present in carbon dioxide gas (CO 2) that goes into the
atmosphere as one of major
greenhouse gases so far. Sources of CO2 comes from respiration among animals,
decomposition
of dead bodies, natural events such as volcanic eruptions, and man-made
activities like burning
and other human emissions from industrial factories. CO 2 levels had increased
significantly over
the past years especially during emergence of the Industrial Revolution.
During photosynthesis producers or autotrophs (plants and algae) either on land
or in water convert
CO2 into organic substances such sugar (glucose), which at the same time
essential for heterotrophs
(animals) as energy source. Heterotrophs gets their energy by breaking this
sugar during cellular
respiration. CO2 is released as waste product in this metabolic activity.
Carbon is also released into the soil through weathering of rocks and other
geologic landforms.
The carbon in the soil becomes fossil fuels in time. Downpour of rains cause
leaching and runoff
in the soil, bringing carbon into oceans and settle as sediments. CO 2 also reacts
and dissolve in
water producing bicarbonate ions (HCO3−). In time, ocean sediments composed
of calcium
carbonates (CaCO3) are returned back into the land by means of uplifting when
waters surge into
the shore. This process continues, to ensure that carbon element cycles in the
biosphere, to be taken
up and used in whatever meaningful activity necessary to maintain life and
being.
B. Nitrogen Cycle.
Figure 7. Nitrogen Cycle involving Biotic Factors (Image credit to Khan Academy)
Nitrogen is the most abundant element on Earth in the form of nitrogen gas
(N2). Formation of
protein and nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) in many organisms requires nitrogen.
But plants and
animals, including us cannot directly make use of this abundant N 2 gas since we
lack mechanisms
in our bodies to convert it into its usable form. Prokaryotes or single-celled
organisms such as
nitrogen-fixing bacteria called cyanobacteria in aquatic biomes; the Rhizobium
bacteria living
symbiotically in the root nodules of legume plants like peas, beans, and
peanuts; and the free-living
Azotobacter can transform nitrogen gas into biologically usable forms by means
of nitrogen
fixation.
Nitrogenous wastes from animals or decaying bodies become ammonium (NH 4
+) through
ammonification with the help of certain bacteria and fungi.
Nitrifying bacteria like Nitrosomas can convert this ammonium into nitrites
(NO2-) in the process
called nitrification. Nitrites can be converted into nitrates (NO3-) by same
bacteria. Eventually,
nitrates can be turned back into nitrogen gas through denitrification process
performed by another
bacteria like Pseudomonas and Clostridium.
Animals that eat plants get the nitrogen-containing molecules and becomes part
of their bodies;
some will be broken down and excreted as urea, which is found in their urine.
Nitrogen cycle also occurs in marine biomes as depicted by the image below.
nitrogen cycle, circulation of nitrogen in various forms through nature.
Nitrogen, a component of proteins and nucleic acids, is essential
to life on Earth. Although 78 percent by volume of the atmosphere is
nitrogen gas, this abundant reservoir exists in a form unusable by most
organisms. Through a series of microbial transformations, however, nitrogen is
made available to plants, which in turn ultimately sustain all animal life. The
steps, which are not altogether sequential, fall into the following
classifications: nitrogen fixation, nitrogen assimilation, ammonification,
nitrification, and denitrification.
Nitrogen fixation, in which nitrogen gas is converted into inorganic
nitrogen compounds, is mostly (90 percent) accomplished by
certain bacteria and blue-green algae. A much smaller amount of free nitrogen
is fixed by abiotic means (e.g., lightning, ultraviolet radiation, electrical
equipment) and by conversion to ammonia through the Haber-Bosch process.
Nitrates and ammonia resulting from nitrogen fixation are assimilated into the
specific tissue compounds of algae and higher plants. Animals then ingest
these algae and plants, converting them into their own body compounds.
The remains of all living things—and their waste products—are decomposed by
microorganisms in the process of ammonification, which yields ammonia (NH3)
and ammonium (NH4+). (Under anaerobic, or oxygen-free, conditions, foul-
smelling putrefactive products may appear, but they too are converted to
ammonia in time.) Ammonia can leave the soil or be converted into other
nitrogen compounds, depending in part on soil conditions.
Nitrification, a process carried out by nitrifying bacteria, transforms soil
ammonia into nitrates (NO3−), which plants can incorporate into their own
tissues.
Nitrates also are metabolized by denitrifying bacteria, which are
especially active in water-logged anaerobic soils. The action of these
bacteria tends to deplete soil nitrates, forming free atmospheric
nitrogen.
C. Oxygen Cycle.
Oxygen gas (O2) is essential to metabolism in animals such as cellular
respiration. This gas is
released as by-product during photosynthesis by plants. Besides respiration,
oxygen is also
required for other chemical reaction such as combustion, oxidation, and
decomposition.
As animals utilize oxygen in their bodies, carbon dioxide is formed as waste
product which is
exhaled out of the body. Carbon dioxide is then used during photosynthesis and
this cycle repeats
to keep oxygen balanced in the atmosphere.
Oxygen cycle refers to the movement of oxygen through the atmosphere (air), biosphere (plants and
animals) and the lithosphere (the Earth’s crust). The oxygen cycle demonstrates how free oxygen is
made available in each of these regions, as well as how it is used. The oxygen cycle is
the biogeochemical cycle of oxygen atoms between different oxidation states in ions, oxides,
and molecules through redox reactions within and between the spheres/reservoirs of the planet Earth.
[1]
The word oxygen in the literature typically refers to the most common oxygen allotrope,
elemental/diatomic oxygen (O2), as it is a common product or reactant of many biogeochemical redox
reactions within the cycle.[2] Processes within the oxygen cycle are considered to
be biological or geological and are evaluated as either a source (O2 production) or sink (O2 consumption).
[1][2]
Oxygen is one of the most common elements on Earth and represents a large portion of each main
reservoir. By far the largest reservoir of Earth's oxygen is within the silicate and oxide minerals of
the crust and mantle (99.5% by weight).[6] The Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere together
hold less than 0.05% of the Earth's total mass of oxygen.
