Section 2: Cycles of Matter Flashcards
What are the three steps in the water cycle?
Evaporation, condensation, precipitation.
What is the water cycle?
The continuos process by which water moves from Earth’s surface to the atmosphere and back.
What is evaporation?
Where water is turned into a gas and released into the atmoshphere.
What is condensation?
The water is turned back into water and collects with dust forming clouds.
What is precipitation?
Where water returns to Earth as rain, snow, or hail.
Where does the energy of evaporation come from?
The heat of the sun.
What cycles are linked in ecosystems?
The carbon and oxygen cycle.
True or false?
Producers, consumers, and decomposers play roles in recycling carbon oxygen.
True
Explain the carbon cycle.
Producers take in carbon dioxide gas from the air through photosynthesis. They fix the carbon and turn it into a carbon compound. When animals eat the plant, they eat the carbon. When organisms die, decomposers break it down and release the carbon into the soil.
Explain the oxygen cycle.
Producers release oxygen as a result of photosynthesis. Most organisms take in oxygen from the air and us it to carry out their life process.
What is the nitrogen cycle?
Decomposers break down wastes and the bacteria releases the nitrogen into the air. The bacteria in nodules fix the nitrogen and turn it into nitrogen compounds. The consumers eat the compounds in the plants.
What do consumers use nitrogen compounds for?
To build proteins and other complex compounds.
Defend this statement: The sun is the driving force behind the water cycle.
It is because without the sun the water wouldn’t evaporate. There would be no condensation or precipitation because there would be no water in the atmosphere.
