Nutrient Cycles and Decay Flashcards
What do plants take from the soil or the air? What do they turn these elements into?
Eg Carbon, Oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen
→ They turn these into complex compounds (carbohydrates, proteins and fats)
How are the elements (that make up living organisms) returned to the environment?
Through waste products produced by the organisms, or when organisms die
→These materials decay becaise they’re broken down (digested) by microorganisms which is how they get back into the soil
What conditions do microorganisms work best in?
Warm and moist and oxygenated
What happens to elements when they are decayed?
All the important ones are recycles - they return to the soil and are ready to be used up by new plants and put back into the food chain again
What happens to the materials in a stable community?
They ones taken out of the soil and used are balanced by those that are put back in
What is the carbon cycle powered by?
Photosynthesis
Explain the carbon cycle
- Co2 is removed from the atmosphere by green plants and algea and the carbon is used to make carbohydrates, fats and proteins in the plants and algea
- Some of the carbon is returned to the atmosphere as CO2 when the plants and algae respire. Some of the cabon becomes part of the fats and proteins in animals when the plants and algae are eaten, The carbon then moves through the food chain
- Some of the carbon is returned to the atmosphere as CO2 when the animals respire
- When plants, algae and animals die, other animals (detrirus feeders) and microoganisms feed on their remains. When these organisms respire, co2 is returned into the atmosphere
- Animals also produce waste, and this too is broken down by detritus feeders and microorganisms. Compounds in the waste are taken up from the soil by plants as nutrients (they’re put back in the food chain again)
- Some useful plant and animal products (eg wood, fossil fuels are burnt - combustion) this also releases CO2 back into the air
