Cycles of Matter
Summary
TLDRThis educational script delves into the fundamental elements of life—oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen—and their role in forming essential compounds like water, carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. It underscores the law of conservation of mass and energy, highlighting that these elements are recycled through biogeochemical cycles, influenced by biological, geological, and chemical processes. The script explores the water cycle, emphasizing its five main processes: evaporation, condensation, transpiration, percolation, and precipitation. It also touches on the carbon and nitrogen cycles, detailing how they are integral to life's sustenance, with human activities significantly impacting these cycles on a global scale.
Takeaways
- 🌿 Living organisms are primarily composed of oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, with phosphorous playing a role in nucleic acids.
- 🔄 The law of conservation of mass and energy states that matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed.
- 🌎 Organisms do not manufacture elements; they are recycled within ecosystems through biogeochemical cycles.
- 💧 The water cycle involves processes such as evaporation, condensation, transpiration, percolation, and precipitation, demonstrating how water is recycled in the biosphere.
- 🌱 Photosynthesis and respiration are key biological processes in the carbon cycle, where carbon dioxide is either taken in or released.
- 🔥 Human activities, including burning fossil fuels and deforestation, significantly impact the carbon cycle and the cycling of matter on a global scale.
- ♻️ The nitrogen cycle is complex and involves the conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into forms usable by organisms, primarily through nitrogen fixation by bacteria and lightning.
- 🌾 Legumes like peas, soybeans, peanuts, and lentils play a crucial role in the nitrogen cycle by fixing atmospheric nitrogen and making it available to other plants.
- 🌋 Geological processes, such as volcanic eruptions, also contribute to the carbon and nitrogen cycles by releasing stored gases into the atmosphere.
- 🌱 Crop rotation, particularly incorporating legumes, is a farming practice that enhances soil fertility by replenishing nitrogen, which is vital for plant growth.
Q & A
What are the four most abundant elements in living organisms?
-The four most abundant elements in living organisms are oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen.
What is the law of conservation of mass, and how does it relate to the biosphere?
-The law of conservation of mass states that matter and energy are never created nor destroyed. In the biosphere, this means that organisms cannot manufacture these elements, and they do not use them all up; instead, matter is recycled within ecosystems.
What are biogeochemical cycles, and why are they important for life?
-Biogeochemical cycles are closed loops through which elements pass from one organism to another and to various parts of the biosphere. They are important for life because they allow for the recycling and reuse of essential elements like carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, which are necessary for the formation of life's most important compounds.
How does the availability of elements affect ecosystems?
-The availability of elements affects ecosystems by influencing the cycling of matter. If certain elements are scarce, it can limit the growth and health of organisms, which in turn affects the entire ecosystem.
What are the main processes involved in the water cycle?
-The main processes involved in the water cycle are evaporation, condensation, transpiration, percolation, and precipitation.
What is transpiration, and how does it relate to the water cycle?
-Transpiration is the process by which water evaporates from the leaves of plants. It is a part of the water cycle as it contributes to the water vapor in the atmosphere, which can then condense to form clouds and lead to precipitation.
How does human activity affect the cycles of matter on a global scale?
-Human activities such as mining, burning fossil fuels, clearing land for agriculture, and the use of fertilizers can significantly affect the cycles of matter. These activities can alter the natural balance of elements like carbon and nitrogen in the environment.
What is the role of photosynthesis and respiration in the carbon cycle?
-Photosynthesis and respiration are reverse processes in the carbon cycle. Photosynthesis takes in carbon dioxide and uses it to make food for the plant, while respiration releases carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.
Why is nitrogen fixation important in the nitrogen cycle?
-Nitrogen fixation is important because it converts atmospheric nitrogen, which is unusable by most organisms, into ammonia or nitrates that can be used by plants. This process is carried out by certain bacteria and is essential for making nitrogen available in the soil for plant growth.
What are the two main processes in the nitrogen cycle that involve bacteria?
-The two main processes in the nitrogen cycle that involve bacteria are nitrogen fixation and denitrification. Nitrogen fixation converts atmospheric nitrogen into a form usable by plants, while denitrification releases nitrogen gas back into the atmosphere.
Outlines
🌿 Biogeochemical Cycles and Conservation of Matter
This paragraph introduces the fundamental elements that make up living organisms: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and phosphorus. It emphasizes the law of conservation of mass and energy, stating that these elements are neither created nor destroyed but are recycled within ecosystems. The concept of biogeochemical cycles is introduced, explaining how elements move through the biosphere in closed loops, influenced by biological, geological, and chemical processes. Human activities, such as mining and burning fossil fuels, also impact these cycles on a global scale. The paragraph sets the stage for understanding how matter is recycled in nature, powered by the one-way flow of energy.
💧 The Water Cycle and Its Processes
The second paragraph delves into the water cycle, one of the most familiar biogeochemical cycles. It outlines the five main processes: evaporation, condensation, transpiration, percolation, and precipitation. Each process is described with examples, such as water evaporating from bodies of water and transpiration from plant leaves. The paragraph also touches on how water has been part of Earth's history, possibly existing in dinosaurs or historical figures like Julius Caesar, highlighting the recycling of matter. The importance of the water cycle for life is emphasized, as it demonstrates the continuous reuse of water through various stages.
♻️ The Nitrogen Cycle: Fixation, Utilization, and Denitrification
This paragraph explores the nitrogen cycle, which is crucial for life as nitrogen is a key component of amino acids and nucleotides. It explains that while the atmosphere is rich in nitrogen, most of it is unusable for living organisms. The process of nitrogen fixation, where unusable atmospheric nitrogen is converted into usable forms like ammonia and nitrates, is discussed. This can occur through natural processes like lightning or through the action of bacteria in the soil and water. The paragraph also mentions the role of legumes in nitrogen fixation and the practice of crop rotation to maintain soil fertility. Denitrification, where bacteria release nitrogen gas back into the atmosphere, is also highlighted as a key process in the cycle, showing the interplay between biological and geological processes.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Biogeochemical Cycles
💡Conservation of Mass
💡Evaporation
💡Condensation
💡Transpiration
💡Percolation
💡Precipitation
💡Photosynthesis
💡Respiration
💡Nitrogen Fixation
💡Denitrification
Highlights
Living organisms are composed mostly of oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, with phosphorous in nucleic acids.
The law of conservation of mass and energy states that matter and energy are never created nor destroyed.
Organisms cannot manufacture elements; they must be obtained from the environment.
The availability of elements affects ecosystems, and organisms participate in biogeochemical cycles.
Matter moves through the biosphere differently than energy, which moves in one direction and dissipates as heat.
Earth receives a steady supply of energy from the sun but not a steady supply of new matter from space.
Matter is recycled within ecosystems in closed loops called biogeochemical cycles.
Biological processes include activities performed by living organisms, such as eating, breathing, and eliminating wastes.
Geological processes include volcanic eruptions, weathering, erosion, and movements within the Earth's surface.
Chemical and physical processes involve the formation of clouds, precipitation, and the action of lightning.
Human activity affects the cycles of matter on a global scale, including mining, burning fossil fuels, and land clearing.
The water cycle involves five main processes: evaporation, condensation, transpiration, percolation, and precipitation.
Carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus recycle through biogeochemical cycles, essential for life.
Photosynthesis and respiration are reverse processes that take in or release carbon dioxide.
Decaying organisms and human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, contribute to the carbon cycle.
Volcanic activity is a geological part of the carbon cycle, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The nitrogen cycle is more complex, involving nitrogen fixation and denitrification by bacteria.
Legumes, such as peas and soybeans, play a crucial role in nitrogen fixation, making unusable nitrogen usable for other plants.
Crop rotation, including nitrogen-fixing plants, is a common agricultural practice to maintain soil fertility.
Bacteria in the soil help in the nitrogen cycle by obtaining energy from nitrates and nitrites, releasing nitrogen gas.
Transcripts
living organisms are composed mostly of
four elements oxygen carbon hydrogen and
nitrogen as we've just been talking
about in this whole unit with a little
bit of phosphorous thrown in there for
good measure in the nucleic acids these
are the basis for life's most important
compounds water carbohydrates lipids
proteins and nucleic acids but there's a
law in all of science it's about the
conference conservation of mass matter
and energy mass matter and energy are
never created nor are they ever
destroyed organisms cannot manufacture
these elements and they do not use them
all up so where do organisms get these
elements how does the availability of
these elements affect ecosystems guess
what get your papers ready because we're
gonna find out remember
wide right skinny left see on the next
slide on the first slide I mentioned the
law of conservation of mass matter and
energy okay this is a law that you're
going to hear repeated over and over in
biology as well as chemistry and physics
matter moves through the biosphere
differently than the way energy does
remember energy moves in one direction
from one trophic level to the next some
energy dissipates into the environment
as heat along the way but while the
Earth's receives a steady supply of
energy in the form of sunlight
constantly entering the biosphere Earth
does not receive a steady supply of new
matter from space instead matter is
recycled within in between all the
ecosystems if you take a look at the
picture on this slide and on page 79 in
your textbook it can help you remember
that these cycles of matter are powered
by this one-way flow of energy
matter moves through the cycles and is
transformed it's never created it's
never destroyed it's just changed or
rearranged
element's pass from one organism to
another and to various parts of the
biosphere in closed loops called bio geo
chemical cycles so that's one big word
that's got really three words crammed
together biological geological and
chemicals we call them biogeochemical
cycles and there are many ways they can
be classified biological processes
consist of any and all activities
performed by living organisms like the
bear catching the fish and the digestion
of the fish and all that kind of stuff
eating breathing burning food
eliminating eliminating wastes all of
these are biological processes
geological processes include things like
volcanic eruptions weathering erosion
movements within and below the surface
of the earth we see a beautiful picture
of Bryce Canyon here showing geological
processes and the island of Surtsey
erupting those are all geological
processes the formation of clouds
precipitation the flow running water and
the action of lightning are examples of
chemical and physical processes okay so
there's our bio geo chemical so we're
going to be talking about all three of
those as we go through this section
we're also going to be talking about
human activity because human activity
affects the cycles of matter on a global
scale
these can include activities such as
mining burning fossil fuels clearing
land to build a farm burning forests or
the manufacture and use of fertilizers
it even extends into our waters with
drilling rigs and production platforms
and barges and pipelines and all that
stuff these processes are vital to the
cycling of matter as you're going to see
in
classroom activities with the carbon and
the nitrogen cycle games the same atoms
and molecules are passed around again
and again and again but often in various
different compounds it's a never-ending
cycle so think about this the carbon or
nitrogen atoms or phosphorus atoms or
the water molecules in your body today
could have once been a part of a rock on
the ocean floor or they could have been
in the tail of a dinosaur or even a part
of someone like Julius Caesar
remember that matter is not created and
it's not destroyed it just keeps getting
reused and in order to get reused it has
to be recycled so in the next few slides
we're going to talk about those
processes we're gonna start with the
water cycle because it's probably the
most familiar to you and it's also the
first one they talked about in the book
so in the water cycle there are five
main processes that we're going to
consider the first one is evaporation
evaporation is the change of water from
a liquid to gaseous state we see an
example of evaporation here in this
model over the ocean and there's some
over the smaller body of body of water
as well water evaporates from all of
those places and goes into the
atmosphere as the gaseous water rises in
the atmosphere the temperatures become
cooler and when the temperatures become
cooler water vapor can't stay in the
gaseous state so it starts to condense
back into liquid and it forms bigger and
bigger droplets of water these bigger
and bigger droplets of water condense
and form clouds you see condensation on
windows when it's cooler on one side of
the window then then the other side okay
so water condenses so condensation we
see that happening where the clouds are
in this picture in the second little set
of red circles water can also evaporate
from the leaves of plants this is called
transpiration and you see that in the
fourth circle here so water evaporating
from the leaves of plants is called
transpiration water also moves down
through the ground it's filtered by
layers and layers of soil this process
is called percolation and you see
percolation all the way over there in
the right hand corner in our last circle
it's again water moving down through the
soil and being filtered by the layers
and layers of soil it's also a term
you're gonna hear in chemistry next year
because it means in general the movement
and filtering of a fluid in this case
water through layers of a porous
material in this case soil and rock
lastly another familiar part of the
process and something we've been seeing
quite a bit of lately is precipitation
yeah so everywhere here where you see
it's snowing or raining or sleeting we
see precipitation so the water that was
raining on us today might have been
water that was in a pool that dinosaurs
drink from millions of years ago pretty
cool I hear the dogs barking I gotta let
him go in water is not the only material
that recycles here in the biosphere
carbon nitrogen and phosphorus do as
well remember we don't have a new source
of elements coming in from outer space
like we do light energy so all matter is
just rearranged and used again and again
it's not created and it's not destroyed
nutrients pass through these
biogeochemical cycles moving carbon
nitrogen and phosphorus through the
biosphere without these life wouldn't
exist so let's take a look at the carbon
cycle photosynthesis and respiration are
reverse processes that either take in or
give off carbon dioxide and you might
already know plants do photosynthesis
but animals and plants do respiration
putting carbon dioxide into the air so
photosynthesis takes carbon dioxide out
and they use it to make their food which
is also a carbon compound but then at
night time they undergo respiration
which they take in oxygen and give off
carbon dioxide just like we do this is
the bio part of the biogeochemical
processes in the carbon cycle and you
see them circled in the two little
circles labeled photosynthesis and plant
respiration now decaying organisms also
put carbon
site back into the atmosphere as well so
we see that little circle there this is
where the detritivores and and
decomposers come in that we were just
talking about in the last section humans
have a part in this cycle as well as
they do in all cycles we burn fossil
fuels rerun automobiles we heat our
homes we generate electricity this is
the chemical part of the biogeochemical
process it's also human activity not
shown in this model but nonetheless
important is the geological part of this
cycle the geological part is volcanic
activity volcanic activity releases
tremendous amount of carbon dioxide into
the atmosphere this is carbon dioxide
that's been trapped in rock and magma
for millennia so yeah there's the carbon
cycle now the nitrogen cycle is a little
bit more complicated so we're gonna take
two slides to kind of sort it all out
here so just kind of stick with me on
this it is pretty interesting if you
asked me 78% of our atmosphere is
nitrogen but very little of it is any
use to living things as is all living
things need nitrogen do you remember why
we need it to make two things amino
acids for proteins and nucleotides for
nucleic acids nitrogen occurs naturally
in the soil as ammonia nh3 nitrate ions
no.3 - and nitrite ions no.2 - now you
don't need to remember the formula so
you just kinda need to be familiar with
the words that they're that they're
nitrogen compounds that occur in the
soil okay these compounds come from
animal wastes from dead decaying organic
matter some dissolved nitrogen exists in
the ocean and as we said nitrogen gases
in the atmosphere you see that noted
with the little three little black
arrows that we have here
okay now since 70% of the nitrogen is
unusable in order to recycle it it needs
to be made usable again okay so what do
you do if you have something that isn't
usable and you want to use it again you
fix it so nitrogen needs to be fixed it
gets fixed by reacting with hydrogen or
oxygen lightning fixes some atmospheric
nitrogen and bacteria in the soil and in
the water fix still more a third source
of nitrogen fixation is in plants called
legumes Peas soybeans peanuts and
lentils are examples of legumes now
farmers might plant these crops these
crops take the unusable nitrogen in the
soil and they make it usable again and
as I said farmers might plant these
crops this is actually pretty critical
because there are some crops like corn
that are nitrogen hogs they just deplete
the soil of all the usable nitrogen
stores in two or three crop cycles now
farmers usually don't want to spend
additional money on fertilizer so they
can do one of two things in a situation
if they have a field that doesn't have a
lot of nutrient as pretty poor soil they
can let the field sit fallow for one or
two crop cycles and let natural soil
bacteria work back up financially this
might not be a very good decision for
the farmer though so the farmer has
another option he can plant something
like soybeans or alfalfa or peanuts
because those crops put the nitrogen
back the good nitrogen back into the
soil this is called crop rotation and
it's very very common among farmers we
also have bacteria in the soil that
obtain energy from the nitrates and the
nitrites releasing nitrogen gas back
into the atmosphere so that the cycle
can start all over again
so if you study the diagram that we have
here which is also the same diagram
that's in the textbook you can see that
the nitrogen cycle is predominantly a
biological cycle you see the cycle of
nitrogen fixation and denitrification
shown in the purplish blue arrows here
fixation and denitrification by bacteria
are the two main processes in the
nitrogen cycle and those are the words
that I want you to be most most familiar
with this happens in both soil and water
and it goes from soil or water to the
air and back ok continually happening
geologically some nitrogen is put into
the air with volcanic activity but not
very significant amounts chemically some
of the nitrogen atmospheric nitrogen is
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