The Biogeochemical Cycles
Characteristics of the earth :
Liquid , water, plate tetonics, Life ! Its the only one that we know that has life because its not too close and not too far from the sun. 2.3 million years ago the earth had low oxygen, the evidence is in the pyrite in some of the rocks that comtain iron beause they become redish at times. Photosynthesis: Is what brought oxygen, carbon dioside and water are combined in the precense of light to create oxygen and sugars. Before oxygen appeared it first oxidied all the uniozied iron. Early photosynthesis included stromatolites which can be 3.4 billio years old. Early Organisms on earth Prokaryotes : Lacked organelles and a nucleus, get energy from fermentation, Low energy yield. Eukaryotes: Use oxygen for respiration, larger cell with nucleus and organelles, Biosphere: The presense on prokaryotes helped the fomation of oxygenated atmosphere , plants and animal evolved, Micronutrients: elemenst required in small amounts of life, or moderate amount Macronutrients: 24 elements required by all organisms, THE BIG SIX: CARBON, OXYGEN, HYDROGEN, NITROGEN, PHOSPHORUS, SULFUR Life to persist elements: Too much of some elements: toxic Too little of the element: can limit growth and development Neutral:Some are neutral for life Bigeochemical cycles: Major components of the earths system: -Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Lithosphere, Biosphere :gas phase , are solubel and carried by the hydrologic cycle. Oxygen and Nitrogen.. Most required nutrients are light.. heaviest is iodine. Through modern tecnology transfer rate of elemnts into air, water, and soil altered >>>>> must be aware of the postive and negative consequences of altering cycles. Geological Cycle: Rocks and soil, altered due to physical,chemical and biological processes : The cycle includes: Tectonic, Hydrologic, Rock, and Biogeochemical |
Tectonic cycle
-Involves creation and destruction of the lithosphere ( the outer layers of the earth) Types of plate boundaries: -Divergent plate boundary: -occurs at a spreading ocean ridge, plates move away from one another - produces ocean basis Convergent plate boundary: - Plates collide, in this area mountain range may form Tectonic Cycle : -Transform fault boundary: -occur when plates slide past each other Hydrologic Cycle: -The transfer of water from oceans to the atmosphere to the land and back to the oceans Driven by solar energy: -Evaporation from oceans -precipitation of water and land -transpiration: of water by plants -evaporation of water from plant Rock Cycle : -a process that produces rocks and soils this process consist of three different types of rock which are igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic Physical weathering: produces sediment such as gravel, sand and silt chemical weathering: occurs when weak acids dissolve chemicals from rock. Carbon Cycle: -element that anchors all organic substances, carbon occurs in the ocean in several forms such as carbonate and bicarbonate, it enters the ocean by simple diffusion and transfer from land in rivers as dissolved carbon, enters biota through photosynthesis , when animals die they release carbon through decomposition The carbon Cilicate Cycle: Carbon involved with the cycling of silicon ! weak carbonic acid falls as rain, Nitrogen Cycle: N is essential to life because it is needed for the production of proteins and DNA , N2 makes up 78 % of the atmosphere, Nitrogen Fixation: process of converting atmospheric N to NO3 or NH4+ -Industrial process can now convert molecular N into compounds usable by plants N plus O can dioxide of N cause air pollution Phosphorus Cycle: -"One of the big six required in life." Does not have a gaseous phase. -It enters biota through uptake as phosphate by plants and algae and some bacteria - |