Water Cycle
What are the four main processes of the water cycle?
Evaporation, condensation, transpiration and precipitation
In what process do plants remove carbon dioxide from the air?
Photosynthesis
What is the nitrogen cycle?
The nitrogen cycle is the process by which nitrogen is converted between its various chemical forms.
During the nitrogen cycle, bacteria convert gaseous nitrogen into ammonia in a process called nitrogen fixation.
True or False? Phosphorus does not circulate in the atmosphere, most of the cycle takes place at and below ground level
True
The circular pathway of water on Earth from the atmosphere, to the surface, below ground, and back is known as
Hydrologic Cycle
Carbon continually flows from the environment to living organisms and back again in the carbon cycle. After photosynthesis how does carbon move through the biotic world?
As one organism eats another.
Process of converting nitrates into nitrogen gas, especially by the action of bacteria
Denitrification
When does the phosphorus cycle begin?
It begins when phosphate is released by the erosion of rocks
Concept for the the movement of a particular chemical, such as oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, or phosphorus, through the living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem. (other name for the nutrient cycles)
A biogeochemical cycle
As water mixes with air it forms water vapour, as the air cools the water vapour forms clouds. What is this called?
condensation
Carbon dioxide is also added to the atmosphere through human activities, such as
The burning of fossil fuels and forests and the production of cement.
The process of the formation of ammonia or its compounds from nitrogenous compounds, especially as a result of bacterial decomposition
ammonification
How do plants obtain phosphorous?
absorb through roots (in water or soil)
Organisms take in oxygen and release it as carbon dioxide through what proceess?
Respiration
The heat from the sun soaks up water from the oceans, lakes, rivers, trees and plants in a process called _______
evaporation
Areas that store carbon over a long period of time are called
Carbon sinks
Nitrogen fixation occurs in three steps, list the steps
Ammonification, nitrification, and denitrification.
How is phosphorous returned to the soil from living things?
waste, decomposition
Which law explains how matter is cycled over and over but not created or destroyed?
the law of conservation of matter (mass)
What is transpiration?
the evaporation of water from plants
Carbon is returned to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide by ________ or through the ______ of dead organisms.
Respiration, decomposition
Through the process called ________, these bacteria change ammonium into nitrate.
nitrification
What is the difference between the short-term and long-term phosphorous cycles?
short-term is the movement through plants, animals, and phosphates in water/soil, long-term is the movement through rocks
What are the 4 biogeochemical cycles we have learned about so far?
water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous