Home Page Textbooks Prentice Hall Biology (California) Section 3.3: Cycles of Matter

Prentice Hall Biology (California)

1st Edition

Kenneth R. Miller, Levine

ISBN: 9780132013529

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Section 3.3: Cycles of Matter

Exercise 1

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Unlike the unidirectional flow of energy, the flow of matter circulates around the ecosystem and the biosphere. Due to the limitations of the resources entering the Earth’s atmosphere, biogeochemical cycles ensure that matter is recycled. Biogeochemical processes are classified into three cycles namely, biological processes, which consists of all the activities of living organisms; geological processes that include movements of matter in the Earth’s surface; and chemical and physical processes that occur within the three states of matter.

Exercise 2

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Solution 2

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All organisms need nutrients in order to build tissues and run their physiology. Nutrients are essentially special matter that organisms can digest and utilize to build itself and run it’s body functions. Some nutrients are essential nutrients that organisms have to periodically obtain in order to survive. Examples include iodine and calcium.

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All organisms need nutrients because their cells require energy and various materials in order to survive and function properly. Without nutrients, the cells of an organism would eventually die.

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Some examples of nutrients include carbohydrates and lipids, which can provide energy to the cell. Proteins are another type of nutrient that is used as building blocks for the cell’s structures.

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Vitamins and minerals are some of the essential nutrients that the body needs to stay healthy. Lastly, water is an essential nutrient that is needed by all living organisms in order to survive.

Exercise 3

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The path of nitrogen in the biogeochemical cycle is quite complex since it has many different sources of input. Since the Earth’s atmosphere is $78%$ nitrogen, it can be used in different ways. One way is that people take the gas to help in the production of fertilizer. Another way is that bacteria take the nitrogen from the air and they convert it to ammonia. Ammonia is also made from many human industries and also from the decay of living things once they have died. Other forms of bacteria can take the ammonia and produce nitrates and nitrites which can be used by another group of bacteria to make atmospheric nitrogen once more.

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See solution explanation.

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Some bacteria convert nitrogen gas into ammonia. Other bacteria convert ammonia into nitrates and nitrites, which are used by producers to make proteins. Other soil bacteria convert nitrates into nitrogen gas, and the whole cycle starts again.

Exercise 4

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It is reported that the majority of the primary producers are dependent on sunlight, water and nutrients to carry out their own process of food production called “photosynthesis”. If water and sunlight are in the right supply, is it the number of nutrients that limit the primary productivity in the process.

Exercise 5

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Trees recycle carbon by taking in carbon dioxide and converting it to sugar, releasing oxygen in the process. If forests are cut down then there will be more $CO_2$ in the atmosphere and less $O_2$. This will prove problematic for many animals including humans.

Exercise 6

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Algal blooms disrupt the ecosystem by reducing the ability of aquatic organisms to get sufficient nutrients. sunlight and oxygen. Aquatic plants located on the floor of the bodies of water will no longer get enough sunlight needed for photosynthesis due to the algal blooms covering the water surface. Because of this, the oxygen in water is reduced. Eventually, algal blooms create a dead zone wherein there is little or no oxygen at all. As a result, aquatic organisms experience death due to hypoxia.

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Section 3.3: Cycles of Matter

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