Biogeochemical Cycles

Introduction to the concept of biogeochemical cycles and how energy from the Sun and the Earth drives processes like the water cycle and nutrient movement on the planet.

Explanation of how nutrients like carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur move between the living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) worlds on Earth.

Detailed discussion on why biogeochemical cycles involve biological, chemical, and geological processes and how nutrients move between the living and non-living components of Earth.

Highlighting nitrogen and phosphorus as limiting nutrients essential for life, and how their presence or absence can impact ecosystem functioning and growth.

Explanation of how energy flows through ecosystems from producers to consumers and how matter is conserved and recycled through biogeochemical cycles.

Discussion on the significance of nutrients like carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur for sustaining life forms and their roles in various biological processes.

Explanation of how water moves through the environment, including processes like evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and runoff, and its importance for plant and animal life.

Description of the carbon cycle, including processes like photosynthesis, cellular respiration, carbon storage in rocks, fossil fuel formation, and combustion.

Explanation of the nitrogen cycle, involving nitrogen fixation, nitrification, denitrification, and its significance as a key nutrient for plant growth.

Overview of the phosphorus cycle, including weathering, erosion, plant uptake, and its slow turnover rate due to its role as a limiting nutrient.

Discussion on the sulfur cycle, highlighting processes like sulfide oxidation, sulfur dioxide emissions, absorption by living organisms, and its movement through ecosystems.