Prepared By

Lia Astuti
Syifa Islamiati Nurjanah
 Earth’s Lithosphere
“In the developed world. . We no longer honor our relationship to the
soil. . . Soil has simply become one more resource - a substance
necessary for crop production and for holding up buildings. . . “
(Elena Wilken. . . World Watch article, 1995)
 Let’s start with the Lithosphere
3 major zones of Earth:
Core - very hot, solid & liquid
Mantle - solid zone, largest
(68% of its mass, rich in iron, silicon, oxygen & Magnesium)

Crust - outermost & thinnest portion, consists of

continental crust (29%) & oceanic crust (covers 71% of Earth’s
surface)
 Plate Tectonics and Macroevolution
– The continents are not locked in
place.
• They drift about Earth’s
surface on plates of crust
floating on a flexible layer
called the mantle.
– California’s infamous San
Andreas fault
• Is at a border where two plates
slide past each other.
About 250 million years
ago :
• Plate movements
formed the
supercontinent
Pangaea.
• Many extinctions
occurred, allowing
survivors to diversify.
About 180 million years
ago
• Pangaea began to
break up, causing
geographic isolation
& new species
 Earth’s Lithosphere
Crust contains
8 elements make up 98.5% of weight of Earth’s crust
(O, Si, Al, Fe, Ca, Na, K, Mg)
–Minerals (any naturally occurring inorganic substance
found in Earth’s crust as a crystalline solid)
–Nonrenewable fossil fuels
–Potentially renewable soil nutrients (eroded rock,
mineral nutrients, decaying organic matter, water, air &
living organisms)
Earth’s “continental crust”
Earth’s land surface:
–Only 11% arable (useable
for agriculture)
•Rest too nutrient poor, cold,
wet, dry, etc.
–Possible to add 24% more to
arable land category if we
irrigate & use fertilizers
–Total to possibly 35% of
land surface potentially arable
 Element = Carbon
 Carbon is essential to life as we
know it
 Carbon is the basic building
block for all organic compounds
necessary for life (carbohydrates,
proteins, fats, DNA)
 To study life is to study Carbon
Chemistry!
 Organic Compounds
 Compounds which contain :
– C (Carbon) combined with :
– H (Hydrogen
– O (Oxygen)
– N (Nitrogen)
– S (Sulfur)
– P (Phosphorus)
– Cl (Chlorine)
– F (Fluorine)
 All other compounds are called inorganic
compounds
 Carbon Cycle
 It involves natural processes
 A global gaseous cycle
(atmospheric cycle in which a large
portion of a given element (C)
exists in gaseous form (C02) in
atmosphere
 Nutrients (like Carbon) are recycled in various
chemical forms (cyclic movement of carbon in
different chemical forms)
 C cycles from the abiotic environment to the living
organisms and back to the abiotic environment
Re-Draw the Carbon Cycle Into Your Notes Now
 CARBON DIOXIDE

 C02 Cycles fairly rapidly from the atmosphere, through soil

and organisms, and back to atmosphere
 Key component of nature’s thermostat
 If too much C02 removed from atmosphere, the atmosphere
will cool
 If cycle generates too much C02, the atmosphere will get
warmer
 So C02 does affect the BIOSPHERE ( and can determine
temperature & possibly change climate)
 Some CO2 is utilized to produce biomass in trees and
plants
 Which can form fossil fuels after millions of years of
decomposition and compaction (as buried organic
material)
 When fossil fuels (coal, oil,gas) go through combustion
(burning process), CO2 is released back into the
atmosphere
 Terrestrial producers (green plants and trees) remove CO2
from the air
 PHOTOSYNTHESIS takes place 6CO2 + 6H2O +
solar energy is converted into C6H12O6 (glucose)+ 6O2
(oxygen)
 Consumers and decomposers breakdown glucose
(consumption) and utilize oxygen for respiration
 The Hydrocarbons get converted back to CO2 in the
atmosphere
 Humans and causes of increases in
CO2 (all unsustainable practices):

 Cut down trees (producers of oxygen and

users of CO2)
 Industries

 Transportation (i.e.,cars)

 Buildings
 Increased amounts of carbon:
 Global warming (rising sea/water level)
 May lead to extinction of certain plants, insect and
animals, which could cause an imbalance in the food
chain.
 Acidification on oceans
 There are three
types of C Cycles
 Atmospheric cycle  carbon dioxide

 Hydrological cycle  dissolved carbonate

 and bicarbonate

 carbon containing
 Sedimentary cycle  minerals in rocks