Explain Nitrogen cycle and Carbon cycle. With Diagrams..................
Answers
Approximately 78% of air is Nitrogen. Nitrogen is important to life because it is a key part of amino and nucleic acids. Also, it is an important part of ATP, which is the basic energy molecule for living things.
Neither plants or animals can obtain nitrogen directly from the atmosphere. Instead, they depend on a process known as nitrogen fixation. Key players in this process are legumes and the symbiotic bacteria which are associated with the legume's root nodules. These bacteria are known as nitrogen-fixing bacteria. These organisms convert nitrogen in the soil to ammonia, which can then be taken up by plants. This process also occurs in aquatic ecosystems, where cyanobacteria participate.
After nitrogen has been fixed, other bacteria convert it into nitrate, in a process known as nitrification. In the first step of this process, Nitrosomonas convert ammonia into nitrite, and in the second step, nitrite is converted into nitrate, by Nitrobacter. This nitrate is then consumed by plants.
The final aspect of the nitrogen cycle is the process of denitrification. This process is performed by a variety of microscopic bacteria, fungi, and other organsims. Nitrates in the soil are broken down by these organsisms, and nitrogen is released into the atmosphere. This complete the cycle.
carbon cycle
All living things are made of carbon. Carbon is also a part of the ocean, air, and even rocks. Because the Earth is a dynamic place, carbon does not stay still. It is on the move!
In the atmosphere, carbon is attached to some oxygen in a gas called carbon dioxide.
Plants use carbon dioxide and sunlight to make their own food and grow. The carbon becomes part of the plant. Plants that die and are buried may turn into fossil fuels made of carbon like coal and oil over millions of years. When humans burn fossil fuels, most of the carbon quickly enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and traps heat in the atmosphere. Without it and other greenhouse gases, Earth would be a frozen world. But humans have burned so much fuel that there is about 30% more carbon dioxide in the air today than there was about 150 years ago, and Earth is becoming a warmer place. In fact, ice cores show us that there is now more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than there has been in the last 420,000 years.
