Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Environmental Cycles (The element of phosphorus is (P) and its released …
Environmental Cycles
-
-
You can find both elements in the atmosphere o-o and n-n but oxygen makes up only 21 percent of it while nitrogen accounts for a 78% we do need nitrogen just as much as we need our oxygen its a key component of DNA the body's genetic program for life and of all proteins the building blocks of cells unlike oxygen we really cant just breathe in nitrogen and put it straight to our bodies we need nitrogen in a different form and we get it from food. Its all part of a process called the nitrogen cycle nitrogen is constantly moving in a big circle from the air to the ground to the plants, animals, and humans
First nitrogen from the atmosphere falls to the ground thanks to precipitation snow, rain, hail that sort of thing once its in the soil the nitogen crosses paths with a special type of bacteria these bacteria often live on the roots of plants in a mutually beneficial relationship the plants give the bacteria a cozy home and the bacteria give the plants the bacteria latch onto a nitrogen molecule breaking it into two separate atoms and combine each with hydrogen to form a compound called ammonia the gaseous nitrogen has been fixed or attached to other elements to form compounds that cells can use the process is called nitrogen fixation
Ammonia itself is pretty toxic so before it can be used it needs to be turned into something else for this a different type of bacteria grabs onto each ammonia molecule and combines it with oxygen this step is called nitrification and it creates a compound that plants can safety absorb through their roots
Plants use these compounds to build proteins animals in turn get these nitrogen based goodies by eating plants and other animals all living things have to exit out waste and when plants and animals die their bodies decay the proteins and other nitrogen compounds to the soil inside them.
This process is called ammonification this new ammonia can go right back into the nitrification step plants don't absorb all the substance created at that step some of it is snagged by the fourth kind of bacteria these guys steal the oxygen atoms from those compounds leaving plain own nitrogen gas as a by product it has the opposite effect of nitrification so we call this process denitrification the left over nitrogen is free to return to the atmosphere completing the nitrogen cycle
Our human activity can have a huge impact on the nitrogen cycle fertilixers, smoke and sewage from factories not to mention the waste of farm animals all add millions of tons of extra nitrogen to our environment that throws the nitrogen cycle out of balance leading to the loss of oxygen in lakes and rivers soil that won't grow anything and polluted or acid rain we have to take steps to protect our environment
-
Water Cycle
The atmosphere has a certain amount of water vapor and it does come from the earth surface water which are oceans, rivers, and lakes.
Water is constantly cycling from land to air and back again that process is called the Water Cycle and also water is the most important part of the ecosystem. Basically every living thing depends on a supply of clean water.
The Water cycle could be know as the Earth's circulatory system because there is a fixed amount of water cycling around and inside our planet The water is know as the hydrosphere and the sun is also the heart that bumps water around the hydrosphere.
The heats energy breaks the bonds between water molecules and that causes them to evaporate from oceans, lakes and even rivers and plants and water returns to the earth through precipitation known as rain,snow,sleet, and hail
The ground water can stay on top of the surface from days to even millions of years and the groundwater feed wetlands, lakes, and streams and also it supplies us with water for drinking and for farming and many other things
The water cycle has been going on for billions of years circulating the same supply of water over and over again a water molecule a dinosaur drank from could also end up in the water we all people drink today even if water is constantly moving through the hydrosphere the amount in any one part of the cycle never changes the ocean contains 97% of all the water in the hydrosphere and it loses a huge amount to evaporation everyday but it also makes up the same amount from ground water precipitation and rivers
-
-
-