Natural Cycles Study Guide (Water, Carbon, Nitrogen)—Test 12/19

*Study all diagrams,foldables, and notes in your interactive notebook.

Videos to help review: Brain Pop- carbon cycle, water cycle ; Study Jams-nitrogen cycle

Carbon Cycle

Photosynthesis and Respiration

  1. Carbon moves from the atmosphere to plants. This carbon is used in the process of photosynthesis to make glucose.
  2. The animals eat the plants and the animals that have eaten the plants to get their carbon.
  3. Animals and plants release carbon back in the air during respiration (the process of converting food to energy using oxygen and giving off carbon-mitochondria of a cell)

Decomposition

  1. Carbon moves from plants and animals into the ground when things die and decay. Decomposers break them down and use some of it for their bodies. Some will become buried underground and will become fossil fuels in millions of years. Some will be released back ionto0 the air.

Combustion and Sources

  1. When fossil fuels are extracted and used to power factories, power plants, cars, and trucks, etc., carbon is released into the atmosphere. Other carbon sources are animals, volcanic eruptions, and forest fires.

Storage and Sinks

  1. Carbon moves from the atmosphere into the oceans. They soak it up from the atmosphere. Animals that live in the ocean use the carbon to build their skeletons and shells.
  2. Other places that store carbon are: water, plants and trees, atmosphere, fossils fuels, rocks, soil, shells.
  3. The ocean and plants and trees are the earth’s largest sink

Human Impact

  1. Carbon keeps our world warmer and prevents it from being a “Frozen world.” However, the more carbon in the air, the warmer our planet will become. This is why many are trying to prevent an excess of carbon from getting into our atmosphere.

Water Cycle

Transpiration-is when plants absorb water in its roots and give off water vapor through pores in the leaves.

Infiltration-amount of which soil absorbs rainfall

Evaporation-the process that occurs when water changes from a liquid to a gas, caused by heat

Condensation-the cooling of water in the atmosphere, changing gas to a liquid.

Precipitation-water droplets from the atmosphere in the form of rain, sleet, or hail.

Sun-provides energy that evaporates water and heats land

Water cycle-the process by which water moves through the Earth and atmosphere

*Most of the Earth’s water is at the North and South Poles in the form of ice.

*75% of the Earth’s surface water is the ocean.

*Ocean-salt water

*Drinking water-fresh water (ponds, springs, streams, river, lakes)

Nitrogen Cycle

Pgs. 376-377-diagram

Nitrogen makes up 8/10 of Earth’s atmosphere

Nitrogen cycle-repeated movement of nitrogen through the environment in different forms

*Lightning can cause cause nitrogen to combine with other gases in air and make nitrogen compounds

*Most organisms can’t use nitrogen gas directly from the air.

Steps of the Nitrogen Cycle:

  1. Bacteria in plants and the soil change nitrogen gas into nitrogen compounds (chemicals that contain nitrogen).
  2. Plants and animals use nitrogen compounds to make proteins they need to grow.
  3. Bacteria change nitrogen compounds from waste and dead plants and animals back into nitrogen gas