Lesson 1.5: The Recycling of Matter
Completion requirements
Lesson 1.5: The Recycling of Matter
The natural environment is an interaction of energy and matter. All energy comes from the sun and escapes Earth as radiated heat. Matter, on the other hand, cycles through ecosystems. The recycling of matter is ongoing and essential since there is only a limited amount of matter to begin with.
In this lesson you will examine the natural movement of matter in the forms of elements and chemical compounds. You will investigate four main types of recycling between the living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem: the water cycle; the carbon cycle; the oxygen cycle; and the nitrogen cycle.
In this lesson you will examine the natural movement of matter in the forms of elements and chemical compounds. You will investigate four main types of recycling between the living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem: the water cycle; the carbon cycle; the oxygen cycle; and the nitrogen cycle.
- Describe how all energy comes from the sun, moves through living things as chemical energy, and escapes Earth as heat. (It does not cycle)
- Describe the water cycle using the terms evaporation, condensation, precipitation, transpiration, runoff and groundwater
- Define humidity
- Give two ways that wildfires affect the water cycle
- Give two ways that human water use affects the water cycle.
- Describe the carbon cycle and oxygen cycle using photosynthesis and cellular respiration
- Describe how peat becomes a carbon sink
- Describe the role of carbon dioxide in climate change.
- Give two ways that humans affect the carbon cycle
- Give one way that wildfires in forests and peat affect the carbon cycle
- Give the importance of nitrogen to life
- Describe the atmosphere as the main reservoir of nitrogen
- Say why nitrogen is useful to living organisms
- Give some forms of nitrogen that can be used by organisms, and one form that cannot.
- Describe the nitrogen cycle using the terms nitrogen fixation, nitrification, denitrification nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria, legumes and lightning
- Give two ways the humans add nitrogen to the nitrogen cycle
- Give one way that wildfires affect the nitrogen cycle
- Read pages 440 to 443 of the textbook, ending at “The Recycling of Other Elements and Compounds”. Answer the questions as you encounter them.
Science 20 Textbook. Albert Education
Since elements and compounds are recycled, the atoms making up the bodies of living things are the same ones that were present when life began on Earth.
- Read the remainder of page 443 of the textbook. Also read from page 444 to “The Oxygen Cycle” on page 446. Answer the questions as you encounter them.
Science 20 Textbook. Albert Education
The oxygen cycle is vital to life on Earth and to the use of fossil fuels.
- Read page 446, beginning at “The Oxygen Cycle”. Also read pages 447 to 449. Answer the questions as you encounter them.
Check your answers above.
Nitrogen is a key component in the proteins and DNA of living things. It is critical to life. However, it is not the abundant nitrogen gas in the air that can be used by plants and animals. The useful nitrogen must come in other forms, which are generated through the nitrogen cycle.
- Read pages 450 and 451 of the textbook.
- Read “1.5 Summary” on page 452 of the textbook. Then, complete “1.5 Questions”.
Science 20 Textbook. Albert Education