“A nutrient cycle is the movement and exchange
of organic and inorganic matter back into the production of living matter. The
process is regulated by food web pathways that decompose matter into mineral
nutrients” (IPNI, 2014). Nutrient cycling or specifically the cycle of carbon
and nitrogen is one that takes place in the arctic tundra biome where polar
bears call their home. In this cycle of nutrients, there isn’t just one way
to cycle the nutrients; there are many ways. For example, the carbon cycle
could start off with “phytoplankton and Algae taking up carbon dioxide from sea
water and transforms it into the organic carbon of their tissue” (PolarDiscovery, 2006). Then consumers such as whales and fish consume the plankton
and algae and take in this organic carbon. Even consumers prey on other
consumers in the ecosystem that “converts their prey’s carbon into their own
tissues or into sinking fecal pellets” (Polar Discovery, 2006). Then
decomposers such as bacteria return the nutrients back into the soil in the
arctic tundra, however, the consumers are capable of helping put carbon back
into the ecosystem by breathing or respiring. Then the cycle repeats however it
does not have to be in this order. However in the nitrogen cycle, there is only
one specific way in which it can be completed. Nitrogen makes up 79 % of the
atmosphere so when there is snow fall in the tundra, the snow is nitrogen rich
and gets eventually deposited back into the soil. Once in the soil bacteria
break down the nitrogen compounds into ammonia and then further more into
nitrates. Plants benefit from the nitrites by absorbing then through their
roots, turning the substance into nucleic acid and proteins, however, animals
are only able to benefit from the nitrogen after the plants use it to make
these proteins and nucleic acid. “ When animals die, or release waste,
decomposers break it down and convert the nitrogen found there into ammonia
then special bacteria change that to nitrogen and release it back into the
atmosphere” (Prezi, 2014). In both of these cycles producers, consumers and
decomposers play prominent roles yet also provide an energy flow in the
environment. Energy transfers from producer to consumer to decomposer; however,
only 10% of the energy gained from each organism is transferred to the next. (Eg. When a fish consumes a shrimp, the fish is only gaining 10% of the energy that the shrimp received from consuming algae. Then when a seal consumes a fish, the seal will only receive 10% of the energy that the fish gained from consuming the shrimp.) This is because when an organism receives energy it uses up the other 90% in order to live.
References List
boi
ReplyDeleteboi
ReplyDelete