Nutrient, Water, Carbon, Nitrogen Cycles, Effect of human activities on

these cycles

Recent atmospheric warming, many

of the world’s glaciers are slowly
melting.

Dr. A. A. NAPOLEON, M. Pharm., Ph.D.

Associate Professor,
Pharmaceutical Chemistry Division, SAS,
VIT University, Vellore – 14.
 Nutrient cycle (or ecological recycling)
Nutrient cycle (or ecological recycling)
• Movement and exchange of organic and inorganic matter back into the production
of living matter.

• The process is regulated by food web pathways that decompose matter into
mineral nutrients.
• Nutrient cycles occur within ecosystems.

• The elements and compounds that make up nutrients move continually through
air, water, soil, rock, and living organisms within ecosystems, as well as in the
biosphere in cycles called biogeochemical cycles (literally, life-earth-chemical
cycles), or nutrient cycles.

• They are an important component of the earth’s natural capital and human
activities are altering them.

• Ecosystems are interconnected systems where matter and energy flows and is
exchanged as organisms feed, digest, and migrate.

• Minerals and nutrients accumulate in varied densities and uneven configurations

across the planet.

Nutrient cycles connect past, present, and future forms of life.

• Some of the carbon atoms in your skin may once have been part of an oak leaf, a
dinosaur’s skin, or a layer of limestone rock.
 1. Water cycle, or Hydrological cycle
 Water is an amazing substance that is necessary for life on the earth.
 Vital natural renewable resource, which forms the basis of all life.
 Water is a universal need.
• It shapes the earth’s surface and moderates the climate.

 Water sources: Rainfall, Wells, Rivers, lakes and streams.

Surface water, Groundwater Municipal water.

Water rich countries: Iceland, Canada, Norway, Brazil etc.

Water poor countries: Kuwait, Egypt, UAE, Malta,
Bahrain, Saudi, Singapore etc.

The water cycle:

The water cycle, collects, purifies, and distributes the earth’s fixed supply of water.

• Describes the continuous movement of water on above and below the surface of
the Earth.

Water we use keeps on cycling endlessly through the environment is called

hydrocycle or Hydrological cycle.

• Water can change states among liquid, vapor, and ice at various places in the water
cycle.
 Water Resources

Water: Sea water: 97.5 % , Fresh water: 2.5 % ,

Ground water: 0.4%

• Vital natural resource – forms the basis of all life.

• Important component of all living organisms.

Nearly 71% of earths surface is covered with water

 97.5% of water on the Earth is salt water.
 About 2.4% of the total water on the planet is Fresh water.
 .009% water on Earth is Freshwater Lakes.
.
1. A tree is made up of 60% by weight of water.
2. Animals are made up of 50-60% by weight of water.
3. Human body constitutes 60% by weight of water.

Humans mainly need fresh water which exist only about 2.4% of the total
water on the planet,
Water dissolves nutrients and distributes them to cells, regulates body
temperature, supports structures and removes waste products.
 Hydrological cycle: Processes
The water cycle is powered by energy from the sun and involves three major
processes—evaporation, precipitation, and transpiration.

Evaporation: Transformation of water from liquid to gas phases

• Heat energy from the sun causes evapn. from all surface water, earth’s oceans, lakes,
rivers, and soil.
• Sun also drives the weather systems, which move the Clouds (water vapours) and fall
again in the form of rain, snow to the oceans/earth.
Condensation and precipitation:(Rain fall) occurs due to
Condensation of water from a gaseous state in the atm.
Falls to earth once water condenses & pulled by gravity. precipitation:(Rain fall)
Transpiration
Water absorbs thr. the roots and lost to the atm. (over 90%) from the leaves & the soil.
Infiltration
• The flow of water from the ground surface into the underground.
• Once infiltrated, the water becomes soil moisture or groundwater.
Runoff
• The variety of ways by which water moves across the land.
This includes both surface runoff and channel runoff.
Sublimation
• The state change directly from solid water (snow or ice) to water vapor.
1. Water Cycle
1. Water Cycle
 Over-Utilization of Water
Uses of water include
– Agricultural, Industrial, Household, Recreational and environmental
activities.
• The rapid increase in population and industrial growth has increased the demand for water
resources.
• Due to increase of ground water usage, the annual extraction of ground water is in far excess
than the natural recharge.

Over-Utilization of Water
1. Decrease of Ground Water
• Due to increased usage of ground water, the ground water level decreases.

2. Ground water subsidence

• When the groundwater withdrawal is more than its recharge rate, the sediments in the aquifer
get compacted which results in sinking of overlaying land surface. This process is known as
ground water subsidence.

3. Lowering of water table

4. Intrusion of salt water

• In coastal area, over-exploitation of ground water would lead to rapid intrusion of salt water from the
sea.
• Problem: Water cannot be used for drinking and agriculture.

5. Earthquake and landslides

6. Drying up of wells
7. Pollution of water.
 Effect of Human activities on Water Cycles
We alter the water cycle in three major ways

1.Over pumping of aquifers ::

precipitation sinks through soil and permeable rock formations to underground

layers of rock, sand, and gravel called aquifers, where it is stored as groundwater.
We withdraw large quantities of freshwater from streams, lakes, and aquifers sometimes at
rates faster than nature can replace it. (Ground subsidence)

2. Increased runoff from cutting forests and filling wetlands

We clear vegetation from the land for agriculture, by mining, road
building, and other activities, and
Cover much of the land with buildings, concrete and asphalt. This
Increases runoff,
Reduces infiltration that would normally recharge groundwater supplies.
Accelerates topsoil erosion, and
Increases the risk of flooding.

3. Increased runoff on land covered with buildings and pavement

We also increase flooding when we drain and fill wetlands for farming and
urban development.
If left undisturbed,
Wetlands provide the natural service of flood control,
Acting like sponges to absorb and hold overflows of water from drenching rains
or rapidly melting snow.
4. Water Pollution
 Aquifer
Aquifer: A layer of highly permeable rock containing water.
Two types of Aquifer:
1. Unconfined (no limit) aquifers:-
By permeable earth materials. Recharged from rainfall and snow melt. (lake)
2.Confined (limited) aquifers:-
Sandwiched between two impermeable layers.
Recharged by land-surface interaction.
 2. Carbon Cycle
• Carbon is the basic building block of the carbohydrates, fats, proteins, DNA & other
organic compounds necessary for life.

• Various compounds of carbon circulate through the biosphere, the atmosphere, and
parts of the hydrosphere, in the carbon cycle.

The carbon cycle is based on

• Carbon dioxide (CO2) gas, which makes up 0.039% of the volume of the earth’s
atmosphere and is also dissolved in water.

• Carbon dioxide (along with water vapour in the water cycle) is a key component of
the atmosphere’s thermostat.
Terrestrial producers remove CO2 from the atmosphere and
Aquatic producers remove it from the water.

• If the carbon cycle removes too much CO2 from the atmosphere,
The atmosphere will cool.
If it generates too much CO2, the atmosphere will get warmer.

• Thus, even slight changes in this cycle caused by natural or human factors can
affect the earth’s climate and ultimately help to determine the types of life that can
exist in various places.
2. Carbon Cycle
 2. Carbon Cycle: Processes
• This process breaks down glucose and other complex organic compounds to produce
CO2 in the atmosphere and water for reuse by producers.

This linkage between photosynthesis in producers and aerobic respiration in

producers, consumers, and decomposers circulates carbon in the biosphere.

• Oxygen and hydrogen —the other elements in carbohydrates—cycle almost in step with
carbon. Some carbon atoms take a long time to recycle.

• Decomposers release the carbon stored in the bodies of dead organisms on land back
into the air as CO2. However, in water, decomposers release carbon that can be stored as
insoluble carbonates in bottom sediment.

• Indeed, marine sediments are the earth’s largest store of carbon. Over millions of years,
buried deposits of dead plant matter and bacteria are compressed between layers of
sediment, where high pressure and heat convert them to carbon-containing fossil fuels
such as coal, oil, and natural gas

• This carbon is not released to the atmosphere as CO2 for recycling until these fuels are
extracted and burned, or until long-term geological processes expose these deposits to
air.

• In only a few hundred years, we have extracted and burned huge quantities of fuels that
took millions of years to form. This is why, on a human time scale, fossil fuels are non
renewable resources.
 Effect on Human activities on Carbon Cycle
We are altering the carbon cycle
1. Burning of carbon-containing fossil fuels
• mostly by adding large amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere when
we burn carbon-containing fossil fuels (especially coal to produce electricity).

• We also alter the cycle by clearing carbon-absorbing vegetation from forests

(especially tropical forests, faster than it can grow back.

2. Forest Fire

3. Deforestation

Human activities are altering both the rate of energy flow and the cycling of
nutrients within the carbon cycle .

• Computer models of the earth’s climate systems indicate that increased

concentrations of atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases such as
methane (CH4) are very likely to warm the atmosphere by enhancing the
planet’s natural greenhouse effect, and thus to change the earth’s climate
during this century.
 3. Nitrogen Cycle
The major reservoir for nitrogen is the atmosphere.
• Chemically unreactive nitrogen gas (N2) makes up 78% of the volume of the
atmosphere.

• Nitrogen is a crucial component of proteins, many vitamins, and nucleic acids

such as DNA.

However, N2 cannot be absorbed and used directly as a nutrient by multicellular

plants or animals.

Fortunately, two natural processes which convert, or fix, N2 into compounds that
plants and animals can use as nutrients.

 One is electrical discharges, or lightning, taking place in the atmosphere.

 The other takes place in aquatic systems, (in soil & in the roots of some plants)
where specialized bacteria, called nitrogen-fixing bacteria, complete this
conversion as part of the nitrogen cycle.- specialized bacteria in soil as well as
blue-green algae (cyanobacteria)
 The nitrogen cycle consists of several major steps.
The nitrogen cycle consists of several major steps.

In nitrogen fixation, specialized bacteria in soil as well as blue-green algae

(cyanobacteria) in aquatic environments combine gaseous N2 with hydrogen to
make ammonia. (NH3).
The bacteria use some of the ammonia they produce as a nutrient and excrete
the rest into the soil or water.

Some of the ammonia is converted to ammonium ions (NH4+) that plants can use
as a nutrient.
• Ammonia not taken up by plants may undergo nitrification -To nitrates.

In this process, specialized soil bacteria convert most of the NH3 and NH4+ in soil
to nitrate ions (NO3–), which are easily taken up by the roots of plants.

The plants then use these forms of nitrogen to produce various amino acids,
proteins, nucleic acids, and vitamins.

Animals that eat plants eventually consume these nitrogen-containing

compounds, as do detritus feeders and decomposers.
3. Nitrogen Cycle
 Effect of Human activities on Nitrogen cycle
We intervene in the nitrogen cycle in five ways

1. We add large amounts of nitric oxide (NO)or nitrogen dioxide into the
atmosphere by burning any fuel at high temperatures- car, truck & jet
engines. - damaging by acid deposition or acid rain.

2. We add nitrous oxide (N2O) to the atmosphere through the action of anaerobic
bacteria on commercial inorganic fertilizer or organic manure applied to the soil.
This greenhouse gas can warm the atmosphere and deplete stratospheric ozone,

3. We release large quantities of nitrogen stored in soils and plants as gaseous

compounds into the atmosphere through destruction of forests, grasslands, and
wetlands.

4. We adding excess nitrates (NO3–) to water bodies through agricultural runoff

of fertilizers and animal manure and through discharges from municipal sewage
systems. This can cause excess growth of algae.- Eutrophication

5. We remove nitrogen from topsoil when we harvest nitrogen-rich crops, irrigate

crops (washing nitrates out of the soil), and burn or clear grasslands and forests
before planting crops.
 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
According to the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment,

• Since 1950, human activities have more than doubled the annual release of
nitrogen from the land into the rest of the environment—most of this from the
greatly increased use of inorganic fertilizers to grow crops— and the amount
released is projected to double again by 2050.

• This excessive input of nitrogen into the air and water contributes to pollution
and other problems to be discussed in later chapters.

• Nitrogen overload is a serious and growing local, regional, and global

environmental problem that has attracted little attention.

• Princeton University physicist Robert Socolow calls for countries around the
world to work out some type of nitrogen management agreement to help
prevent this problem from reaching crisis levels.