6.4 Explain how water, carbon, and nitrogen cycle between abiotic resources and organic matter in an ecosystem, and how oxygen cycles through
Vocabulary
Tier 3
Nitrogen fixation - when bacteria take nitrogen from the air and turn it into a useable solid form
Transpiration - when water come out of the leaves at night
Essential Questions
1. How does carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and water cycle through the ecosystem?
2. It what ways are humans disrupting the nitrogen and carbon cycles?
The Water Cycle
All water comes from the oceans. It is evaporated and condenses into clouds, then precipitates and all the water runs back to the oceans.
Transpiration is when plants move water up from their roots out their leaves. The water on the leaves evaporates.
Carbon Cycle
Carbon is taken out of the air as CO2 by photosynthesis and made into plants. Animals and burning fossil fuels or wood put CO2 back into the air.
Nitrogen Cycle
The nitrogen cycle recycles organisms when they die, and their waste when they're alive. Nitrogen is the most common element in the air (78% of air). Bacteria take this N out of the air and make chemicals plants use for fertilizer. We eat the plants or animals that eat them, and get the N for protein (muscles and enzymes)