Download Water, Carbon and Nitrogen Cycle Worksheet – Solutions

Water, Carbon and Nitrogen Cycle Worksheet – Solutions
The Water Cycle
1. Participates in many important biochemical mechanisms, including photosynthesis,
digestion and cellular respiration; a habitat for many species; part of the cycle of life for all
living things
2. Through the water, or hydrologic, cycle
3. Gravity
4. The process through which water is lost from plants through their leaves
5. Depends on how much precipitation that area gets
6. A water-saturated zone in soil and rock underground
7. Through the water table in a process called seepage, or in runoff from the surface
8. Flow from rivers and melting glaciers and snowfields
9. 80%
10. 52%
The Carbon Cycle
1. Macronutrients: nutrients used by organisms in large quantities; micronutrients: nutrients
used by organisms in small quantities
2. Roles:
a. Primary producers: incorporate material substances into organic compounds, plants
b. Secondary consumers: release carbon through respiration, animals
c. Decomposers: help biotic material to decay, worms
3. Fossil fuels, in the soil
4. Being absorbed by plants
5. Plants take in carbon through carbon dioxide and fix it in organic compounds like glucose,
starch and cellulose
6. Through respiration in plants and animals, and in decomposition of organic matter
7. An organism that puts carbon into usable organic compounds
8. Their bodies decompose and release carbon back into the environment
9. Help the process of decay and release carbon back into the environment
10. Carbon that has been transformed by high temperature and high pressure
11. Carbon dioxide dissolves from the air and combines with calcium
The Nitrogen Cycle
1. 78%
2. Key component of amino acids and nucleic acids
3. Nitrogen fixation
4. Bacteria that convert nitrogen in the soil into ammonia, which can be absorbed by plant
roots
5. Soil
6. Synthesis of key organic compounds like amino acids, proteins and nucleic acids
7. Breaking down of nitrates by microscopic organisms so nitrogen can be released back into
the atmosphere
The Phosphorus Cycle
1. Used in cellular processes, in nucleic acids and in phospholipids, which make up the cell
membrane
2. Dissolves into water that ends up in rivers and streams
3. Absorbed by plant roots, then concentrated by cyanobacteria and protists
4. Returned to the lake
5. Incorporated into the bodies of marine animals
6. In the same way as land plants, through roots and leaves where it is then concentrated
7. Phosphorus does not enter the atmosphere