This process is also only done by archea, but does not account for all methane because some methane can be made aerobically. This process takes carbon dioxide and converts it into methane. The last anaerobic process is methanogenesis. The only organisms that fix carbon anaerobically are archea. A second form of an anaerobic process is carbon fixation. Bacteria and fungi carry out this process when deprived of oxygen. This is another way that organic material can be converted into carbon dioxide. The first anaerobic process is fermentation. The second group of processes are anaerobic processes. This is the reverse of respiration where carbon dioxide is converted into organic material. A second aerobic process is carbon fixation. Respiration is done by animals, plants, and microbes. Through respiration, organic material can be converted into carbon dioxide. The first group of processes all have an aerobic component. The processes that make up these cycles can be divided into two groups. Rocks contain 81 million gig tons of carbon, which is in the form of calcium carbonate (CaCo 3), commonly called limestone. There are also huge reserves of carbon locked up in rocks. Cyanobacteria are responsible for fixing 50% of the O 2 in the Ecosphere. Nitrogen is only fixed by bacteria and archea, and they fix 85% of the 15 giga tons of nitrogen every year. They also contain 85-130 giga tons of nitrogen, along with 9-14 giga tons of phosphorus. Microbes contain 350-550 giga tons of the worlds carbon. All of these cycles are driven by microbes. All of these cycles can be linked so that a community can remain at equilibrium. The smallest level includes common nutrient budgets and fluxes some examples of this are carbon, H 2O, nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, and other trace elements. These cycles consist of the cycling that occurs in just one ecosystem. On a smaller scale, there are local nutrient cycles. There are global nutrient cycles, which occur when ecosystems become linked on a global scale. Nutrient cycles are broken up into three levels. Nutrient Cycle Levels Respiration can be both aerobic (in the presence of oxygen) and anaerobic (with out oxygen). 2.6 Phosphorus, Iron, and Trace Mineral cycles.All of the living factors that are found on Earth make up the biosphere. The abiotic factors of an ecosystem include: (1) water (hydrosphere), (2) land (lithosphere), and (3) air (atmosphere). The chemicals travel not only through the biotic and abiotic components of an ecosystem, but they also travel through an organism. The amount of time that a chemical is held in one place is called residence.Īll the chemical elements in an organism are part of the biogeochemical cycle. The elements that are moving through the biotic or abiotic factors may be recycled, or they may be accumulated in a place called a sink/reservoir where they are held for a long period of time. It is inclusive of the biotic factors, or living organisms, rocks, air, water, and chemicals. A biogeochemical cycle is a circuit/pathway by which a chemical element moves through the biotic and the abiotic factors of an ecosystem. Nutrients move through the ecosystem in biogeochemical cycles. Presently, the "ecology" of other planets, if such a thing exists, is a subject of study within the science of exobiology. How is the earth constituted what is the nature of this "stage" upon which life developed and upon which life continues to play out. And indeed, since all life we know of occurs on just one planet, we need to develop an understanding of what is special or unique about our home planet. From all we know about life in the universe, only planets can possibly offer conditions suitable for life. To begin to understand this concept: the physical "home" of our biosphere, we first have to consider the physics of planet formation. In the previous chapter on environmental response, we considered the various ways that individual organisms respond to the physical, chemical and/or biological stimuli in their environment.In this chapter, we will go deeper into the interactions between the biotic and the abiotic elements of the biosphere, focusing on the nonliving components.
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