Question

Please prepare an homework on Human Impacts on Biogeochemical Cycles. Search for the impacts of human activities on each cycle. 

Answer 1

The Earth is a closed system for matter, except for small amounts of cosmic debris that enter the Earth’s atmosphere. This means that all the elements needed for the structure and chemical processes of life come from the elements that were present in the Earth’s crust when it was formed billions of years ago. This matter, the building blocks of life, continually cycle through Earth’s systems, the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and lithosphere, on time scales that range from a few days to millions of years. These cycles are called biogeochemical cycles, because they include a variety of biological, geological, and chemical processes.

Many elements cycle through ecosystems, organisms, air, water, and soil. Many of these are trace elements. Other elements, including carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus are critical components of all biological life. Together, oxygen and carbon account for 80 percent of the weight of human beings. Because these elements are key components of life, they must be available for biological processes. Carbon, however, is relatively rare in the Earth’s crust, and nitrogen, though abundant in the atmosphere, is in a form that is not useable by living organisms. The biogeochemical cycles transport and store these important elements so that they can be used by living organisms. Each cycle takes many different pathways and has various reservoirs, or storage places, where elements may reside for short or long periods of time. Each of the chemical, biological, and geological processes varies in their rates of cycling. Some molecules may cycle very quickly depending on the pathway. Carbon atoms in deep ocean sediments may take hundreds to millions of years to cycle completely through the system. An average water molecule resides in the atmosphere for about ten days, although it may be transported many miles before it falls back to the Earth as rain.

How fast substances cycle depends on its chemical reactivity and whether or not it can be found in a gaseous state. A gaseous phase allows molecules to be transported quickly. Phosphorous has no gaseous phase and is relatively unreactive, so it moves very slowly through its cycle. Phosphorus is stored in large amounts in sediment in the oceans or in the Earth’s crust and is recycled back to the surface only over very long periods of time through upwelling of ocean waters or weathering of rocks.

Biogeochemical cycles are subject to disturbance by human activities. Humans accelerate natural biogeochemical cycles when elements are extracted from their reservoirs, or sources, and deposited back into the environment (sinks). For example, humans have significantly altered the carbon cycle by extracting and combusting billions of tons of hydrocarbons in fossil that were buried deep in the Earth’s crust, in addition to clearing vegetation that stores carbon. Global release of carbon through human activities has increased from 1 billion tons per year in 1940 to 6.5 billion tons per year in 2000. About half of this extra carbon is taken up by plants and the oceans, while the other half remains in the atmosphere.

In addition to carbon cycle, humans have altered the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles by adding these elements to croplands as fertilizers, which has contributed to over-fertilization of aquatic ecosystems when excess amounts are carried by runoff into local waterways.

Researchers are trying to understand all of the various pathways and flows of each of the biogeochemical cycles in order to understand how human activities affect these cycles. While many important processes have been understood for more than century, there are many phenomena that scientists are just beginning to investigate. Satellite technology, among other tools, has revealed new information about interactions between the oceans and atmosphere that contribute to knowledge about the carbon cycle, but there remain many unanswered questions.