Unit 3 - Energy and Matter

Matter is recycled within and between the ecosystems

Biochemical cycles: how matter is passed from one organism to another and from one part of the biosphere to another

Biological systems do not use up matter, they transform it:

o  Assembled into living tissue

o  Passed out of the body as waste products 

Organisms need water, minerals, and other compounds too

95% of most organisms are made up of just 4 element:

Oxygen

Carbon

Hydrogen

Nitrogen

As warm moist air rises it cools and forms clouds

When the droplets become large enough, the water returns to Earth’s surface in the form of precipitation

The rain eventually enters a river or stream, and then runs off to the ocean;

Some of the rain seeps into the soil, some goes to ground water, while some is absorbed by plants 

All living things require water

Water moves between the ocean, atmosphere, and land

Evaporation is the process where water changes from liquid form to an atmospheric gas

Water can also enter the atmosphere by evaporating from leaves of a plant in the process of transpiration

All the chemical substances that an organism needs to sustain life are its nutrient

Primary producers usually obtain nutrients in simple inorganic forms from their environment 

Consumers obtain nutrients from eating other organisms 

·  Three important cycles are:

o  Carbon cycle

o  Nitrogen cycle

o  Phosphorus cycle 

Carbon is a key ingredient of living tissue

Four main types of processes move carbon through its cycle:

o  Biological process: photosynthesis, respiration, and decomposition take up & release CO2 and O2

o  Geochemical processes, such as erosion and volcanic activity release CO2 into the atmosphere and oceans     

o  Mixed biogeochemical:

** Burial and decomposition of dead organisms

** processes, how coal and oil was made

o  Human activities, mining, burning fossil fuels release CO2