Nitrogen, Carbon and Phosphorus Cycles Essay

It starts in the atmosphere, then moves, gets used, and placed into multiple different reservoirs. Nature causes the carbon to move through animals and plants. The fast carbon cycle is measured within a lifespan. It runs through the atmosphere, plants, animals, and soil. The slow carbon takes eons for carbon to move from the reservoirs, consisting of the surface ocean, deep ocean, and fossil fuels.“...takes between 100-200 million years to move” (Riebeeck p.2). Carbon that is stored into abiotic and biotic organisms, creates matter. Without carbon, fossil fuels wouldn’t be created (or anything alive, for that matter.) “Carbon is the backbone of life” (Riebeeck p.1). The carbon cycle somewhat regulates the concentration of carbon in one area by having multiple

What is the carbon cycle? “Sequence of processes through which carbon compounds move from one carbon reservoir or sink (such as forests and oceans) to another (such as atmosphere) and back. Since more carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels and less

Photosynthesis occurs each time the sun’s light reaches the lives of a plant. The chemical ingrediants for photosynthesis are carbon dioxide (CO2), a gas that passes from the air into a plant via tiny pores, and water (H20), which absorbed from the soil by the plant’s roots. Inside leaf cells, tiny structures called chloroplasts use light energy to rearrange the atoms of the ingrediants to produce sugars, most importantly glucose (C6H12O6) and other organic molecules. Chlorophyll gives the plant its green color (Simon, 02/2012, pp. 92-93). Chemical reactions transfers the sun’s light energy into the chemical bonds that hold energy-carrying molecules. The most common are

According to our biology book, “there are several elements (water, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus) that cycle through our world just like energy is cycled. These elements are never created or destroyed, but instead they are constantly recycled and reused.” Various human activities can hamper/benefit these cycles. Two of the cycles and how they are benefited and adversely affected by human activities are explained below.

The Carbon Cycle is the series of processes by which carbon compounds are interconverted in the environment, chiefly involving the incorporation of carbon dioxide into living tissue by photosynthesis and its return to the atmosphere through respiration, the decay of dead organisms, and the burning of fossil fuels.

During World War 1 scientists discovered a process which involved taking the nitrogen from the air and turning it into usable ammonia. Most of the ammonia acquired by this process has been used as fertiliser. Upon evaporation, the ammonia proceeds to turning into acid rain. A few attempts have been made to control agricultural nitrogen emissions however, no steps have been taken to regulate agricultural ammonia emissions. Ammonia emissions also come from animal feeding operations. When the ammonia rises into the air and then falls back to the ground, it is broken into nitric and nitrogen acids which can kill plants and fish.

Based on the notes we took in class, the activities we did, and the Journey of X, X is Phosphorus. Phosphorus is a chemical element. In the journey of X, X spent the majority of the journey, in soil, or surface water. The abiotic reservoirs for the phosphorous cycle are soil and surface water. This alone eliminates the water and carbon cycle because they don't have soil as there abiotic reservoirs. Nitrogen is in the atmosphere, and phosphorus is not found in the atmosphere. Throughout the whole journey of X, X was never in the atmosphere. That means it is not Nitrogen. This clearly shows how X is phosphorous.

According to ….the earth’s atmosphere contains 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% CO2 and other gases. Nitrogen makes up almost four fifths of the air we breathe. we already have 25% more nitrogen percentage than is said in this article . we just inhale and exhale the nitrogen back out again, unchanged. It is essential for the growth of most living things. She may think that nitrogen is harmful but as identified on …. It is a fundamental for life .

Throughout this class, I have learned about the multiple material cycles. These cycle methods are utilized within the ecosystem to cycle and recycle the essential chemical elements between the living and nonliving components of the environment. These natural cycles include the following chemical elements, water, nitrogen, carbon, sulfur, phosphorus, and oxygen. These elements are essential to all living things, and each one of these elements has its own individual cycle.

Neon is the 4th most abundant element in the universe, but only .0018% of neon is found in the Earth’s atmosphere. Neon is found in Earth’s atmosphere. Neon is a renewable resource. Neon just by itself isn’t dangerous, but if you have liquid

In the year 2014 37.1 million metric tons of nitrogen was applied to cornfields in the United States.9 161.4 kg/ha was the average amount per acre utilized.9 According to the United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research service, applying nitrogen at the proper rate, at the correct time, utilizing suitable methods of application are important factors for nitrogen management.10 According to the United States Geological Survey 52% of nitrogen that flowed into the Gulf of Mexico was the result of corn and soybean agriculture.11 High amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous cause a bloom of algae, that later die and cause this area in the ocean to become hypoxic.12 Phosphorus plays a crucial role in plants. Since it's a component of nucleic acids, phosphorus plays a vital role in plant reproduction. Moderate amount of phosphorus results in higher grain production but too much can harm the crops.

In recent decades humans have been playing an increasingly large role in the nitrogen cycle. Not all of the ways humans have been affecting the cycle have been negative, but the vast majority have been. One key thing that has human activity that has been disrupting the nitrogen cycle is the burning of fossil fuel. This burning releases carbon into the air at unnatural rate, and thus alters the amount of nitrogen in the atmosphere. This has had far reaching effects that no one first thought of and is now affecting the plant and animals in Acadia National Park. Another human activity that has increased massively over the past few years is industrial nitrogen fixation. This process is used to create fertilizer with high amount of nitrogen in it.

With the atmosphere being almost full of nitrogen, it would only make sense that there would be plenty of it to use (Fields 2004; Fowler et al. 2013; Pfeffer & Hristov 2005). However, it is having sufficient amounts of the

The atmosphere is made up of four main elements: 20.95% of oxygen, 78.09% of nitrogen, .93% of air, .0.387% of carbon dioxide. Nitrogen is the the element that is the most plentiful in the atmosphere. Even though it can be found in minerals and ammonia, nitrogen is mostly found in the atmosphere. It was discovered by a Swedish chemist by the name of Carl Wilhelm Scheele in 1772. It is a colorless, odorless gas and is the eighth element on the periodic table. Argon is third most plentiful element in the atmosphere. It was discovered by Lord Rayleigh and Sir William Ramsay in 1894. It is colorless and odorless when in both the liquid and gas phase. It is the eighteenth element on the periodic table is one of the noble gases. Carbon Dioxide is the fourth most plentiful element on the periodic table. It was discovered by a Belgian chemist named Jan Baptista van Helmont during the seventeenth

The movement of massive amounts of carbon, nitrogen, water, sulfur, phosphorus, and other elements between living organisms and the non-living environment (atmosphere, biomass, and aquatic systems) through a series of production and decomposition processes is known as biogeochemical cycles, given that geology and chemistry are also involved in these processes (Doršner, 2015). Matter is limited in the biosphere so that its recycling is a key issue in the preservation of life in Earth; otherwise, nutrients would run out and life would disappear.