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Biogeochemical Cycle 2

Biogeochemical cycling involves the transfer and transformation of nutrients like carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and others through biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems, driven by oxidation-reduction reactions. The carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles were described. Carbon cycles through the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, and is fixed through photosynthesis into organic matter. Nitrogen cycles between the atmosphere and soil through nitrogen fixation, ammonification, nitrification, and denitrification. Phosphorus cycles slowly between rocks, soil, and organisms.

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16 views

Biogeochemical Cycle 2

Biogeochemical cycling involves the transfer and transformation of nutrients like carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and others through biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems, driven by oxidation-reduction reactions. The carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles were described. Carbon cycles through the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, and is fixed through photosynthesis into organic matter. Nitrogen cycles between the atmosphere and soil through nitrogen fixation, ammonification, nitrification, and denitrification. Phosphorus cycles slowly between rocks, soil, and organisms.

Uploaded by

amodusofiat77
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLING

 Biogeochemical cycling is the transfer, transformation and exchange of nutrients (such as C, N,


P, Fe and Mn), often by oxidation-reduction reactions that can alter the chemical and physical
characteristics of the nutrients, to make life on Earth possible (Fig. 25.1).

Biogeochemical cycle: BIO = life; GEO = earth; CHEMICAL = elements- C, O, N, P, S; a


cycling of nutrients (water, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur) from the abiotic
components of the ecosystem (water, air, soil, rock) through the biotic components (plants, animals,
fungi, bacteria).
CARBON CYCLE

Natural Sources
Sources of Carbon from Human
of
Activity
Carbon

•Death of plants and animals •Burning wood or forests


•Animal waste •Cars, trucks, planes
•Atmospheric CO2
•Burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil
•Weathering
and natural gas to produce heat and
•Methane gas from cows (and other
energy.
ruminants)
•Aerobic respiration from terrestrial and
aquatic life
 Carbon is critical for life because it is the essential building block of all organic
compounds.

 It is present in reduced forms, such as methane (CH 4) and organic matter (C6H12O6),
and in more oxidized forms, such as carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide
(CO2).

 Electron donors (e.g. hydrogen) and electron acceptors (e.g. O 2) influence the
course of biological and chemical reactions involving carbon.

 Hydrogen can be produced when organic matter is degraded, especially when


fermentation occurs under anoxic conditions.
 The cycle begins with carbon fixation- the conversion of CO 2 into organic matter, a
process by which green plants, cyanobacteria and photosynthetic bacteria reduced
carbon dioxide to simple organic molecule in the presence of light energy.

 All fixed carbon enters a common pool of organic matter that can then be oxidized
back to CO2 through aerobic or anaerobic respiration and fermentation (Fig. 25.1)

 Alternatively, inorganic (CO2) and organic carbon can be reduced anaerobically to


methane (CH4) .
NITROGEN CYCLE
Sources

• Lightning
• Inorganic fertilizers
• Nitrogen Fixation
• Animal Residues
• Crop residues
• Organic fertilizers
Forms of Nitrogen

• Urea  CO(NH2)2
• Ammonia  NH3 (gaseous)
• Ammonium  NH4
• Nitrate  NO3
• Nitrite  NO2
• Atmospheric Dinitrogen N2
• Organic N
Global Nitrogen Reservoirs
Nitrogen Reservoir Metric tons nitrogen Actively cycled
Atmosphere 3.9*1015 No
Ocean  soluble salts
Biomass 6.9*1011 Yes
5.2*108 Yes

Land  organic matter


 Biota 1.1*1011 Slow
2.5*1010 Yes
Roles of Nitrogen

• Plants and bacteria use nitrogen in the form of NH 4+ or NO3-


• It serves as an electron acceptor in anaerobic environment
• Nitrogen is often the most limiting nutrient in soil and water.
 Nitrogen is essential for all forms of life because it is required for synthesis of the
basic building blocks of life (e.g. DNA, RNA and amino acids).

 Atmospheric nitrogen (N2) is relatively unusable for biological organisms.


Consequently, chemical processing of nitrogen (nitrogen fixation) is necessary to
convert gaseous nitrogen to forms that living organisms can use.

 Nitrogen fixation is a uniquely prokaryotic process; apart from a limited amount of


nitrogen fixation that occurs during lightning strikes, all naturally produced organic
nitrogen is of prokaryotic origin.
 Microbial species that have nitrogenase enzyme can fix nitrogen under oxic and
anoxic conditions. Azotobacter and Trichodesmium can fix nitrogen aerobically,
while free-living anaerobes such as members of the genus Clostridium fix nitrogen
anaerobically.

 Others include Rhizobium, the bacterial symbiont of leguminous plants, its α-


proetobacterial relatives, and some recently discovered β-proteobacteria (e.g.
Bukholderia and Ralstonia).

 Products of atmospheric molecular nitrogen fixation/reduction is ammonia, which is


immediately incorporated into organic matter as an amine.
 These amine N-atoms are
eventually introduced into
proteins, nucleic acids and
other biomolecules.

 The nitrogen cycle continues


with the degradation of these
molecules into ammonium
(NH4+) within mixed
assemblages of microbes (Fig.
25.3).
 Ammonium is subsequently converted to nitrate (NO 3-), a process called
nitrification, involving a two-step chemolithotrophic process whereby ammonium is
first oxidized to nitrite (NO2-), which is then oxidized to nitrate.

 Different genera of bacteria mediate the two steps of nitrification, Nitrosomonas and
Nitrosococcus play important roles in the first step, and Nitrobacter and related
bacteria carry out the second step.

 The nitrate produced (NO3-) can be reduced and incorporated into organic
compounds, a process known as assimilatory reduction (Fig. 25.3).
 Alternatively, this nitrate serves as terminal electron acceptor for some microbes
during anaerobic respiration, a process called dissimilatory reduction.

 In this case, nitrate is removed from the ecosystem and returned to the atmosphere
as dinitrogen gas (N2) through a series of reaction collectively known as
denitrification.

 The major products of denitrification include nitrogen gas (N 2) and nitrous oxide
(N2O).
PHOSPHORUS CYCLE

IMPORTANCE OF PHOSPHOROUS CYCLE


• 1.Phosphorous is an essential nutrient of both plants and animals.
• 2. It is part of DNA molecules which carry genetic information.
• 3. It is part of ATP and ADP) that store chemical energy for use by organisms in
cellular respiration.
• 4. Forms phospholipids in cell membranes of plants and animal cells.
• 5. Forms bones, teeth, and shells of animals as calcium phosphate compounds.
• The phosphorus cycle, is the circulation of phosphorous among the rocks,
soils, water, and plants and animals of the earth. Human beings and all other
organisms must have phosphorus to live. In nature, most phosphorus occurs in
phosphate rock, which contains phosphate ions combined with calcium,
magnesium, chlorine, and fluorine.
• It cannot be found in air in the gaseous form. This is because phosphorous is
usually liquid at normal temperatures pressures.

• This cycle is the slowest of the matter cycles.

• Phosphorus is most commonly found in rock formations and ocean sediments


as phosphate salts. Phosphates are also limiting factors for plant-growth in
marine ecosystems, because they are not very water-soluble.
THE PROCESS OF THE PHOSPHOROUS CYCLE
• The cycle basically starts out in the earth’s soil. The
soil contains phosphate and when something grows
out of the soil it should have phosphate as well.

• When the plants grow they are consumed by


herbivore and omnivore animals

• The animal’s waste or the animal’s body when it


dies becomes detritus.

• Detritus is non-living organic material. When the


detritus goes deep into the soil, detritivores in the soil
decompose and become the soil’s phosphate and the
cycle repeats.
• Another example of the phosphorus cycle is when rocks are created.

• The phosphate in the soil moves on and transfers its phosphate to the rocks
underwater. When the uplifting of the rocks occurs it takes the phosphate along
with it. After that the weathering of rocks occur and the rocks begin to break down
into the soil and the phosphate in the rocks ends up in the soil again and the cycle
repeats.

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