Download Cycling of Matter Activity

Cycling of Matter Activity
Ecology Unit
Biology 1/1A
Name: Bethany Simonson
Describe each of the cycles in nature. Identify where each cycle is found, how
organisms use them, and what key words relate to them.
Water
Oceans, rivers,
lakes, bodies,
urine
Carbon/Oxygen
Plants, shells of
sea creatures,
fossil fuels, the
atmosphere
Nitrogen
The
atmosphere,
bacteria on
roots of plants
Phosphorus
In bodies,
human waste,
rocks and
minerals
How Used
Life processes,
plants for
photosynthesis,
By plants to
make sugars
Amino acids
and proteins
RNA and DNA
Key Words in
the Cycle
Evaporation,
transpiration,
precipitation,
percolation
Deposition,
respiration,
diffusion
Nitrifying,
denitrifying,
Precipitates
Where Found
Discuss current farming practices that are designed to make the best use of energy
flow in ecosystems and cycles of matter.
There are various current farming practices that are designed to make the
best use of energy flow in ecosystems. They can rotate crops. When they rotate
crops, different crops take different things out of the soil so when they rotate them
they give the soil time to regain the nutrients. They can use corn and oats and switch
between the two every year. They can also bring in livestock to eat of the stocks of
the corn and then use the manure as a natural fertilizer. Lady bugs are a natural
pesticide because they eat aphids, so they don’t have to use other chemical
pesticides.