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Chapter 4

Chapter 4. Organisms. Biogeochemical Cycles. Environment. Nutrient Cycles. Compartment – represents a defined space in nature Pool – amount of nutrients in a compartment Flux rate – the quantity of nutrient passing from one pool to another per unit time. Major Nutrient Cycle Pathways.

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Chapter 4

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  1. Chapter 4 Organisms Biogeochemical Cycles Environment

  2. Nutrient Cycles • Compartment – represents a defined space in nature • Pool – amount of nutrients in a compartment • Flux rate – the quantity of nutrient passing from one pool to another per unit time.

  3. Major Nutrient Cycle Pathways Flux rate Pool

  4. Biogeochemical Cycles • Gaseous Type – a large portion of a given element exists in a gaseous form in the atmosphere. • Sedimentary Type – An element does not have a gaseous phase, or its gaseous compounds do not make up a significant portion of its supply.

  5. Energy Flows in one direction, but nutrients are more or less cycled within ecosystems

  6. Nutrient Turnover Time is Temperature Related Turnover time – the time an average atom will remain in the soil before it is recycled into the trees or shrubs

  7. Nitrogen Cycle • Nitrogen is used to make essential organic compounds such as proteins (amino acids), DNA, and RNA. • Nitrogen is the atmosphere’s most abundant element (global gaseous cycle). • 78% of the volume is chemically un-reactive nitrogen gas N2. • Takes a lot of energy to break the triple covalent bonds holding N N • Microbes mostly responsible for N cycle

  8. Have You Hugged Your Microbes Today? Besides making beer, they are responsible for: • Nitrogen fixation –conversion of gaseous nitrogen to ammonia (N2 + 3H2 2NH3) which can be used by plants. • Biotic: Rhizobium, Azotobacter,cyanobacteria, Rhodospirillium (a purple bacteria), and some Pseudomonas • Abiotic: Lightning • Nitrification - Two-step process in which ammonia is oxidized first to NO2- (by Nitrosomonas) and then to NO3- (by Nitrobacter). • Denitrification – conversion of nitrate ions (by some Pseudomonas or other anaerobic bacteria in waterlogged soil or in the bottom sediments of a water body) into nitrogen gas (N2) and nitrous oxide gas (N2O) • Ammonification – the conversion (by decomposer heterotrophic bacteria) of nitrogen-rich organic compounds, wastes, cast-off particles, and dead bodies into available ammonia (which can be used by plants).

  9. Ecosystem Nitrogen Cycle Gaseous N2 Nitrogen Fixation Ammonification Ammonia: NH3, NH4+ 1. Nitrification Nitrogenous Waste Food Web Nitrite: NO2- 2. Nitrification Nitrate: NO3- Denitrification Loss by Leaching

  10. Cycling of Nitrogen assimilation

  11. Proteins Provides Energy Requires Energy Nitrate Energy and the Nitrogen Cycle

  12. Phosphorous Cycle • The phopsphorous cycle is slow, and on a human time scale most phosphorous flows from the land to the sea. • Circulates through the earth’s crust, water, and living organisms as phosphate (PO4) • Bacteria are less important here than in the nitrogen cycle • Guano (bird poop), mined sediments, and ‘uphill’ movement of wastewater are the main ways phosphorous is cycled in our lifetime • Geologic process (mountain formations / uplifting of ocean sediments) cycle phosphorus in geologic time

  13. Phosphorous is Important • Most soils contain very little phosphorous; therefore, it is often the limiting factor for plant growth on land unless added as fertilizer. • Phosphorous also limits primary producer growth in freshwater aquatic ecosystems. • ATP

  14. Phosphorous Cycle Guano Food web River Flow Soil Ocean Water Geologic Uplifting Food web Mining Sediments

  15. Sulfur Cycle • The sulfur cycle is a gaseous cycle. • Sulfate (SO4) is the principal biological form • Essential for some amino acids • Usually not limiting, but the formation of iron sulfides converts the insoluble form of phosphorous to a soluble form • Sulfur enters the atmosphere from several natural sources. • Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is released by volcanic activity and by the breakdown of organic matter in swamps, bogs, and tidal flats (This answers Matt’s question about who farted in the salt marsh).

  16. Volcanoes, Sea spray Excretion Sulfur bacteria Food Web SO4 Rapid Cycling Aerobic Sulfide-oxidizers Anaerobic Sulfur-reducers Organic Matter H2S S Heterotrophic microorganisms Sulfur bacteria OH SH +Fe3 FeS Very Slow Flux Rate Soluble Phosphorous FeS2 Black Anaerobic Mud Sulfur Cycle

  17. Carbon Cycle • Carbon is the basic building block of organic compounds necessary for life. • The carbon cycle is a global gaseous cycle • Carbon dioxide makes up 0.036% of the troposphere and is also dissolved in water • Key component of nature’s thermostat • Too much taken out of the atmosphere, temp’s decrease • Too much added to atmosphere, temp’s increase

  18. CO2 Uptake and Release • Terrestrial producers remove CO2 from the atmosphere and aquatic producers remove CO2 from water via photosynthesis. • The cells in oxygen-consuming producers, consumers, and decomposers break down the organic compounds and release CO2 back to the atmosphere or water. • The link between photosynthesis and respiration is a major part of the global carbon cycle

  19. Primary Productivity Heat Energy Chemical Energy (ATP) Solar Energy CO2 Respiration Photosynthesis C6H12O6 O2 Available to Consumers Biomass (g/m2/yr) GPP NPP

  20. Other Links of the Carbon Cycle • Fossil Fuels – large stores of carbon which are not released as CO2 unless extracted and burned. • In only a few hundred years, we have extracted and burned fossil fuels that took millions of years to form. • Limestone (CaCO3) – largest storage for the earth’s carbon is in sedimentary rocks such as limestone. • Carbon reenters the cycle as some of the rock releases dissolved CO2 back to the atmosphere. • Geologic processes can bring sediments to the surface and expose carbonate rock to the atmosphere.

  21. Carbon Cycle Atmospheric / Aquatic CO2 Photosynthesis Respiration Combustion of wood / fossil fuels Food Web Weathering Sedimentation Limestone Rocks Volcanic Action

  22. ~216.9 Tg returned to atmosphere ~212.9 Tg taken from atmosphere ~4 Tg added to atmosphere per year

  23. About 1.3 ppm per year Each point = monthly average

  24. Average Mean Temperature

  25. Hydrologic Cycle • Collects, purifies, and distributes the Earth’s fixed supply of water – powered by the sun. • Distribution of Earth’s Water Supply: • Salt water (oceans) = 97.4% • Freshwater = 2.6% • 80% in glaciers and ice caps • 20% in groundwater • 0.4% in lakes and rivers (0.01% of all water!) • Anytime of year, the atmosphere holds only 0.0001% of water on the planet. • Although large quantities are evaporated and precipitated each year • About 84% of water vapor comes from the ocean

  26. Main Processes of the Hydrologic Cycle • Evaporation – conversion of water into water vapor • Transpiration – evaporation from leaves of water extracted from soil by roots • Condensation – conversion of water vapor into droplets of liquid water • Precipitation – rain, sleet, hail, and snow • Infiltration – movement of water into soil • Percolation – downward flow of water through soil and permeable rock formations to groundwater storage areas called aquifers • Runoff – downslope surface movement back to the sea to resume cycle

  27. More water evaporates from the oceans than return to it as precipitation and vice versa for the land • Approximately 90% of the rain in the Mississippi valley originates from the sea • Human activity tends to increase runoff rate, thus reducing the recharge rate of aquifers • Pavement, ditches, river channelization, deforestation

  28. Groundwater is the source of about half our drinking water, most irrigation, some significant industrial use • Some significant aquifers may run dry if we don’t let them recharge

  29. Increase in global temperature has led to increase in sea level rise. • Glacier melt • Thermal expansion

  30. River Continuum Concept models how biotic communities adjust to changes in the ‘downhill’ part of the hydrologic cycle.

  31. = Average Stage = 2005 Stage The Flood Pulse 1959-2005 Atchafalaya River Stage at Butte La Rose USACE Gage ID = 03120

  32. April February December September

  33. April June August September

  34. I II III IV V VI Floodplain Upland Transition Active Floodplain Aquatic Ecosystem Terrestrial Or Upland Ecosystem Bottomland Hardwood Ecosystem Floodplain System Floodplain Zones From Larson et al. 1981; Hall and Lambou 1990

  35. Watershed Biogeochemistry • Watershed – The entire terrestrial and aquatic area that drains into a waterbody. • Loss of nutrients from ecosystems is usually by runoff Calcium flow in a forested watershed

  36. Deforestation increases the rate of nutrient loss due to runoff.

  37. Stream Nitrite Concentration Note Scale Change Other stream nutrient increase two years after the deforestation: Calcium 417%, Magnesium 408%, Potassium 1,558%, Sodium 177%

  38. Standing Biomass • Standing Biomass - all the plant matter in a given area. • Nutrients are either found in the soil or in the standing biomass. • In a temperate forest system, recycling is slow. • Consequently, at any given time, a large proportion of nutrients are in the soil. • So when the land is cleared, it is fertile and can support many years of agriculture

  39. The Tropics: A Closed System • The speed of nutrient cycling in the humid tropics promotes high productivity, even when soils are poor in nutrients. • Nutrients are cycled so quickly there is little opportunity for them to leak from the system • Waters in local streams and rivers can have as few nutrients as rain water • Because there is virtually no loss of nutrients, many tropical forests have virtually closed nutrient cycles. • The opposite would be an open system, in which nutrients are washed out rapidly

  40. Rapid Cycling in the Tropics • Reasons for rapid cycling in the tropics: • Warm climate • No winter to retard decomposition • An army of decomposers • Abundant mycorrhizal fungi on shallow roots • Fungi that grow symbiotically with plant roots • Facilitate water and nutrient uptake

  41. Tropical Rain Forest Paradox • Most tropical rain forests are poor in nutrients – especially oxisol. • as little as 10% of the total nutrients are in an oxisol soil at any given time. • When the forests are cleared for farmland, the land can only support three or four harvests. • Well, how can they support the amount of primary production we find in a tropical rain forest?

  42. Tropical Soils • When the logging trucks take the trees in the tropics, they are carrying the majority of the nutrients!

  43. Cycling of Nonessential Elements • Bioaccumulation - The storage of chemicals in an organism in higher concentrations than are normally found in the environment. • Fat soluble compounds move across cell membranes and dissolve in fats (lipids). • Tend to stay in the organism and thus accumulate • If they were soluble in water, then they would flush out

  44. Bioaccumulation of Tributylin (TBT) • TBT is a chemical found in nautical paint that was found in oysters along the coast of California in the late 1980s’. • Probably caused shell thickening and chamber malformations • Some oysters had TBT concentrations 30,000 times higher than in the water.

  45. Biomagnification • Biomagnification – the accumulation of chemicals in organisms in increasingly higher concentrations at successive trophic levels. • Consumers at higher trophic levels ingest a significant number of individuals, along with the fat-soluble pollutants stored in their tissue. • Top carnivores may accumulate poisons in concentrations high enough to prevent their eggs from hatching, cause deformities, or even death. • Concentrations in predators can be a million times higher in predators than the concentration in the soil or the water

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