Nutrient Cycling

Front 1

What is a Nutrient?

Back 1

Any chemicals required for the proper functioning of organisms

-organic and inorganic chemicals are the two types

Macronutrients: required in large quantitiese.g. average dry weight of plant biomass: 0.1% to 6% of the biomass… ( Carbon is not a macronutrient because it’s a fundamental building block)

Micronutrients: required in smaller quantities…e.G. Average dry weight of plant biomass:0.0001-0.01%

Front 2

How important is carbon? Is it a macronutrient?

Back 2

No because it's up to 60% of the whole plant biomass

Front 3

What is Nutrient Cycling???

Back 3

Transfers, chemical transformations, and recycling of nutrients in ecosystems.

While there are some nutrients buried within the earth, the plants can only use the ones at the surface.

end-products and by-products of one system are food and or essential nutrients for another system….

The point is that we are preventing waste from accumulating… As a result, the ecosystem will not run out of nutrients… Law Conservation of Mass... Nutrients can't be created or destroyed

Front 4

What is a macronutrient?

Back 4

Primary Macronutrients: Nitrogen, Phosphorous, PotassiumSecondary

Macronutrients: Calcium, Magnesium, Sulphur

Basic Nutrients also Macronutrients: Hydrogen, Oxygen,

Front 5

Micronutrients

Back 5

are required in small quantities

Iron, Manganese, Zinc, Copper, Boron, Molybedenum, Chlorine

Front 6

Fluxes

Back 6

are transfers of materials between compartments.

E.g. soils, air, the biosphere. Fluxes occur at specific rates and can vary over time.

Front 7

A Nutrient Budget

Back 7

Nutrient budgets are the outcome of a simple accounting process that tracks inputs and outputs to a given, defined system over a fixed period of time. Like a bank account, the budget tracks inputs (credits) to the system and exports (debits) from the system in order to evaluate changes in nutrient stocks of the system.

Each compartment stores set quantities of nutrients. They remain in these compartments for varying amounts of time and this is called the resident’s time.

the average length of time during which a substance, a portion of material, or an object is in a given location or condition, such as adsorption or suspension. <---- so it also works for pollution

Front 8

Sources

Back 8

are compartments that release their nutrients faster than they get replenished.

Front 9

Sinks

Back 9

accumulate nutrients at a faster rate than they release them.

Front 10

How are vast quantities of carbon transferred from one compartment to another?

Back 10

There are 2 important abiotic processes:

A)Burial and mineralization of carbon on land and in oceans.

B)The withering of carbon minerals and the combustion of fossil fuels.

Front 11

Is phosphorous on the rise?

Back 11

It’s use has increased 4 fold shown by the amount of phosphorous entering soils and surface waters.

Front 12

How is Phosphate released/ cycled?

Back 12

Phosphorus is found in rocks and minerals as phosphate.

It’s release is a slow process.

It is typically bounded in insoluble chemical precipitates which limits its availability to living organisms.

It does not have a gas phase.

It is only recycled if the wastes containing it are deposited in the ecosystem from which it came.

Since it is usually in short supply, phosphorous availability is a strong control on the primary productivity in an ecosystem. It is mostly used in fertilizers by humans.

Front 13

Nitrogen?

Back 13

Similarly, Nitrogen is also a limiting factor to living organisms.

But, it has a gas phase.

Human activity has impacted the cycle through fossil fuel combustion and the release of nitrogen oxides. The rate of transfer from air to land are now 2x faster as nitrogen is also used in fertilizers.

Two of the most important processes in the nitrogen cycle are mediated by bacteria: Nitrogen fixation and Denitrification.

Soils play a critical role in this cycle because we find a lot of bacteria here that are necessary to capture nitrogen from the atmosphere and then can be captured by plants and can move to other compartments.

Front 14

Explain the whole influx output flux thing?

Back 14

There is an influx of nutrients… transfer of material from one system to another.

Then there is are resevoir where the nutrients reside… There is going to be a build-up… The rate at which the nutrients enter the reservoir is much less than the output flux.

In order for a reservoir to maintain a constant size, the rates of input and output must be equal…

We can come up with a nutrient budget…nutrient budget: quantitative estimate of the rates of nutrient input and output…

OMG WUT

Front 15

What is the carbon cycle affected by?

Back 15

Driven by solar energy which is going to drive the life of producers on land and the same process happens in aquatic environments…

The carbon fixed in photosynthesis is a food source for consumers who will released carbon dioxide and eventually it will be buried in the subsurface or released into the atmosphere…

Human combustion of fossil fuels is so prominent that it’s now involved in the cycle… There is a constant flow between atmosphere, biosphere and land… (This is something we can apply to the other cycles as well…)

There is more CO2 as the years go by. The levels of cO2 in atmosphere are at an all time high.

Front 16

Phosphorous is typically limiting factor in aquatic environments. Why?

Back 16

it is typically bound in insoluble chemical precipitates

Front 17

How is the nitrogen cycle affected by humans?

Back 17

Then we have a human side of the nitrogen cycle by capturing nitrogen from the atmosphere and using it to make fertilizers and then we also use it for feed for animals.

There is way more nitrogen moving in the environment because of agriculture, combustion of fossil fuelsTHE HABER BOSCH process helps us capture nitrogen from the atmosphere and use it for fertilizers.

We end up with an amount of nitrogen moving in the environment which is far outside the natural range.

Front 18

How is the phosphorous cycle affected by humans?

Back 18

More phosphorous.

Phosphorous is mined for agriculture because it is used as a fertilizer…. It’s also found in human and animal waste.

There is 4x increase in phosphorous moving within the environment