The Oxygen Cycle

Almost all living things need oxygen. They use this oxygen during the process of
creating energy in living cells.

Just as water moves from the sky to the earth and back in the
hydrologic cycle, oxygen is also cycled through the
environment. Plants mark the beginning of the oxygen cycle.
Plants are able to use the energy of sunlight to convert carbon
dioxide and water into carbohydrates and oxygen in a process
called photosynthesis.

This means that plants "breathe" in carbon dioxide and "breathe"

out oxygen.
Animals form the other half of the oxygen cycle. We breathe in

oxygen which we use to break carbohydrates down into energy

in a process called respiration.

Carbon dioxide produced during respiration is breathed out by

animals into the air.
So oxygen is created in plants and used up by animals, as is
shown in the picture above. But the oxygen cycle is not actually
quite that simple. Plants must break carbohydrates down into
energy just as animals do. During the day, plants hold onto a bit
of the oxygen which they produced in photosynthesis and use
that oxygen to break down carbohydrates. But in order to
maintain their metabolism and continue respiration at night, the
plants must absorb oxygen from the air and give off carbon
dioxide just as animals do. Even though plants produce
approximately ten times as much oxygen during the day as they
consume at night, the night-time consumption of oxygen by
plants can create low oxygen conditions in some water habitats.

Oxygen in Water
Oxygen in

water is known as dissolved oxygen or DO. In nature,

oxygen enters water when water runs over rocks and creates
tremendous amounts of surface area. The high surface area
allows oxygen to transfer from the air into the water very
quickly.

When the water in a stream enters a pond, microorganisms in the

pond begin to metabolize (break down) organic matter,
consuming oxygen in the process. This is another form of
oxygen cycle - oxygen enters water in rapids and leaves water in
pools.
Oxygen uptake rate (O.U.R.) is the rate at which oxygen is
consumed by living organisms in the water. Since organisms are
constantly using up oxygen in the water and oxygen is
constantly reentering the water from the air, the amount of
oxygen in water remains relatively constant. In a healthy
ecosystem, the rates of oxygen transfer (being used up) and
oxygen uptake are balanced in the water.
http://water.me.vccs.edu/concepts/oxycycle.html

Oxygen Cycle
Oxygen, like carbon and hydrogen, is a basic element of life. In addition, in the form of
O3, ozone, it provides protection of life by filtering out the sun's UV rays as they enter the
stratosphere. In addition to constituting about 20% of the atmosphere, oxygen is
ubiquitous. It also occurs in combination as oxides in the Earth's crust and mantle, and as
water in the oceans.

Early in the evolution of the Earth, oxygen is believed to have been released from water
vapor by UV radiation and accumulated in the atmosphere as the hydrogen escaped into the
earth's gravity. Later, photosynthesis became a source of oxygen. Oxygen is also released
as organic carbon in CHO, and gets buried in sediments. The role of oxygen in life is
describe in the unit onBiological Systems.

Figure O1. The Oxygen Cycle

Oxygen is highly reactive. A colorless, odorless gas at ordinary temperatures, it turns to a

bluish liquid at -183 C. Burning or combustion is essentially oxidation, or combination with
atmospheric oxygen. Figure O1 shows a very broad overview of oxygen cycling in nature.
The environment of oxygen in numerous reactions make it hard to present a complete
picture.
Oxygen is vital to us in many ways (beside the most obvious--for breathing). Water can
dissolve oxygen and it is this dissolved oxygen that supports aquatic life. Oxygen is also
needed for the decomposition of organic waste. Wastes from living organisms are
"biodegradable" because there are aerobic bacteria that convert organic waste materials
into stable inorganic materials. If enough oxygen is not available for these bacteria, for
example, because of enormous quantities of wastes in a body of water, they die and
anaerobic bacteria that do not need oxygen take over. These bacteria change waste material
into H2S and other poisonous and foul-smelling substances. For this reason, the content of
biodegradable substances in waste waters is expressed by a special index called "biological
oxygen demand" (BOD), representing the amount of oxygen needed by aerobic bacteria to
decompose the waste. The result of not meeting the oxygen demand is described in the
section on the water cycle (needs anchor to exact spot).

http://environ.andrew.cmu.edu/m3/s4/cycleOxygen.shtml

Nitrogen Cycle
The nitrogen cycle is dominated by the N2 gas
in the atmosphere. Nitrous oxide, N2O is
the second common form. N20 (the gas commonly known as laughing gas) is a greenhouse
gas. Seventy-nine percent of the atmosphere is nitrogen in the form of N2 gas. Because
N2 has low reactivity, it offsets the high reactivity of oxygen, O2, the other major
constituents of the atmosphere. For example when we light a match, the nitrogen does not
burn with the oxygen. It does not react with any other element or common compound under
ordinary conditions. This property of nitrogen has been called the "fire insurance" of our
atmosphere. If the nitrogen was not "diluting" the flammability of 02, every spark from a
match could lead to a large fire!
Due to its different valences (3,4,5,), nitrogen can form a multiplicity of compounds into the
same element. For example, it can combine with oxygen to form N2O, NO, NO2, or N2O5! As
a group, these oxides are (except for N2O5) denoted by NOx.
NOx compounds form an important category of air pollutants, for example, as a result of the
nitrogen and oxygen combining in the extremely hot environment of an automobile engine.
Nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons, in the presence of sunlight, give rise to the
photochemical smog and tropospheric ozone problems, described in the Atmospheric
System. Natural and anthropogenic nitrogen oxides also contribute to acid rain.
Nitrogen - Essential for Life
Nitrogen is an essential element for life. Amino acids, which are the building blocks of
proteins, contain nitrogen as NH2, the "amino" part of the molecule. The four building blocks
of DNA [Adenine (A), Cytosine (C), Guanine (G), and Thymine (T)] consist of single or
double rings of carbon and nitrogen atoms, with various side chains. Nitric oxide is a
neurotransmitter.
Thus all living organisms require large amounts of nitrogen. However, in the form of N2,
nitrogen is unusable by all organisms except for a few primitive bacteria that are capable of
converting N2 gas to ammonia (NH3). This process of conversion is called nitrogen fixation,
and makes the nitrogen available for use by organisms. In the atmosphere, nitrogen is fixed
(i.e. N2is converted to NH3) in three ways: (1) bacteria, (2) by humans through a
manufacturing process called Haber process used in
fertilizer production, and (3) through a chemical process
initiated by lightning.
Certain bacteria are diazotrophs (or more simply, nitrogenfixers). These bacteria possess an enzyme which converts
N2 gas into NH3 or "fixes" the nitrogen.
Diazotrophs may be symbiotic, living as nodules in roots of
plants such as legumes. A type of bacterial called
cyanobacteria live on lichens, mosses, and ferns. Some
cyanobacteria are free-living and capable of
photosynthesis.
Nitrogen-fixing bacteria

on soybean roots
Thus nitrogen fixation is an important process for biological
functioning. Legumes such as peas, clover, and beans have nitrogen-fixing bacteria in their

roots. This enables them to grow in nitrogen-poor soil. Plants take up nitrates through their
roots, and convert them into proteins and other compounds. Animals get their nitrogen from
plants. Wastes and remains of animals and plants contain organic nitrogen compounds
which are then broken down by bacteria and converted into compounds such as ammonia
(NH3). Other bacteria (denitrifying bacteria), found especially in waterlogged soils, convert
nitrates back into nitrogen gas and make it unavailable again. Plants can not use N2, and the
N2 can therefore escape into the atmosphere. Farmers normally try to prevent the soil from
becoming waterlogged. This is the problem with over-watering houseplants as well.
Lightning is an electrical discharge through the air, and can cause N2 and O2molecules to
change into the atomic form, combine with water to form weak nitric acid (HNO3), and
precipitate atmospheric nitrogen to the earth, adding nitrogen to the soil in a usable form
(nitrate, NO3). Inside plants and other organisms, the nitrates are converted into aminoacids and other vital compounds.
Modern agriculture uses artificial fertilizers such as ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) to capture
nitrogen. For example, if you examine the box of "plant food" that is a fertilizer designed for
"acid-loving" plants such as azaleas or rhododendrons, you see the numbers 30-10-10,
where the 30 stands for N, the first 10 for phosphorus, and the second 10 for potassium.
This fertilizer then contains 30% of a nitrogen compound, mostly ammonium nitrate
(NH4NO3) with some urea. While this improves yield, it upsets the natural balance of
nitrogen in the ecosystem. Too much of nitrogen added to the soil through fertilizers washes
out into ponds and rivers and causes overgrowth of algae in large patches. These algae
blooms prevent light from entering the water and smother other aquatic life.
The Nitrogen Cycle is shown in Figure N1.

Figure N1: The Nitrogen Cycle.

Combustion and lightning fix nitrogen in the atmosphere. When plant matter (biomass) is
burned, the organic fixed nitrogen is converted into nitrogen oxides and released. The
clearing of forests by fire and burning of leftover debris from farmland creates large
emissions of nitrogen oxide.
The oceans and sediments also contain large amounts of nitrogen as nitrates. Ammonia
(NH3) is another form of fixed nitrogen. Ammonia is produced by bacteria after they
consume organic matter. This accounts for the ammonia smell from the cat's litter-box
resulting from the bacterial emissions. Before chlorofluorocarbons were invented, ammonia
was the most common refrigerant. While the figure shows the main global routes of cycling
nitrogen, in some locations (for example the Los Angeles basin, Mexico City, and in other
industrial cities), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and nitric acid (HNO3) form a significant fraction of
the local tropospheric environment.

Carbon Cycle
It is believed that most of the carbon now on Earth was originally released from the interior
of the Earth as CO2, a gas which now makes up about 0.03 to 0.04 percent by volume of air,
and is responsible for maintaining the Earth as a greenhouse with temperature conditions
suitable for life. CO2 is the most available form of carbon for living organisms. Molecules
containing carbon may keep the carbon fixed over millions of years or may cycle the carbon
through quickly. The atmospheric cycling and effects of CO2 on climate are discussed in
the Atmospheric System.
Thus, carbon exists in the biosphere as the central element of life, in the lithosphere as coal
(carbon) or limestone (Calcium Carbonate, CaCO3 ), in the atmosphere as CO2, in the
hydrosphere as dissolved CO2 , as well as in other complex forms. The versatility of carbon
compounds and the vital role of carbon as the basis of life is described
in Biological/Ecological Systems. The atmosphere contains about 750 billion tons of carbon
in the form of CO2. Photosynthesis by plants removes about 120 billion tons of carbon from
the air per year, but plant decomposition returns about the same amount. Living plants and
animals contain 560 billion tons of carbon (mostly forest trees). Plant remains and organic
matter buried in the soil contain about 1400 billion tons. About 11,000 billion tons are
trapped in compounds which are complexes of methane (CH4) and water, found on ocean
floor. The oceans contain another 38,000 billion tons of carbon, most of it in the form of
dissolved CO2.
With the onset of the Industrial Revolution about 200 years ago, we began burning massive
amounts of fossil fuels and releasing large amounts of the earthbound carbon into the
atmosphere, primarily as CO2. The burning of fossil fuels adds about 22 billion tons of
CO2 per year (?), containing about 6 billion tons of carbon. Deforestation adds a further 1.6
to 2.7 billion tons, by not removing this amount. The rapid growth of synthetic organic
chemicals contributes to the amount of CO2 released.

The main reservoirs for carbon are sedimentary rocks, fossilized organic carbon including
the fossil fuels, the oceans, and the biosphere. Carbon goes primarily through three cycles
with different time constraints:

1.

A long-term cycle involving sediments and the depths of the lithosphere.

2.

A cycle between the atmosphere and the land.

3.

A cycle between the atmosphere and the oceans.

The last two cycles are faster and subject to human intervention.
Carbon Cycle One: Long-term Cycle
This cycling between atmosphere, oceans, and sediments involve a slow dissolution of
atmospheric carbon and carbon from rocks via weathering into the oceans. In turn, the
oceans deposit sediments, and then some of the sediments are thrown back into the
atmosphere through volcanic action.

Figure C1: Carbon Cycle One.

This cycle occurs over hundreds of millions of years. A larger portion of sediments is calcium
carbonate (CaCO3) because the ocean contains large amounts of calcium.
Carbon Cycle Two: Air and Land Cycle
The second cycle between the atmosphere and biosphere occurs over different time scales
ranging from days to decades. Carbon dioxide is the basic "food" of the biosphere and thus
the biosphere is the agent for this cycling. Photosynthesis (synthesizing starches and sugars
using light) is a main mechanism for cycling carbon by the biosphere. The chemical reaction
of photosynthesis may be represented as:

CH2O represents a unit of organic matter; six of the CH2O unit would be C6H1206 which
makes the simple sugar (glucose or fructose) and 11 of these units make C11H22O11, a more
complex sugar, sucrose, formed by the combination of one glucose and one fructose.
Thousands of glucose molecules combine to form a molecule of starch, or of cellulose.
(Molecule examples) Thus photosynthesis takes the atmospheric carbon in CO2 and "fixes"
it into the biosphere. The subsequent cycling of the carbon in the biomass is created.

Figure C2: Carbon Cycle Two.

Thus 750 Gt-C in the atmosphere cycling at the rate of 80 Gt C/yr means that the lifetime of
the carbon in the atmosphere reservoir is about 9 years.
When the organic matter is oxidized through respiration, the reverse of photosynthesis
takes place.

Respiration releases CO2 into the atmosphere. Respiration and photosynthesis occur at
nearly equal rates over one year. Buried biomass--eventually becoming fossils, including
coal--have historically had an effect of keeping the carbon in the land. The accelerated
burning of fossil fuels is, however, releasing these large stores into the atmosphere as
combustion products.
Burning of biomass-based fuels such as methanol and ethanol has been suggested an
alternate to fossil fuel combustion. Biomass fuels have no net release of carbon dioxide. The
effects of fossil fuel burning is discussed in theAtmospheric System.
Carbon Cycle Three: Air and Sea Cycle

The oceans contain much more carbon than the atmosphere. Carbonates washed down from
the rocks, over thousands of years, dissolved CO2, and carbon in the oceanic biomass
constitutes this reservoir. The carbon from the top layers of the ocean cycles faster whereas
the carbon in deep waters may take thousands of years.
The summary of the three cycles is shown in Figure C3.

Figure C3: Three Carbon Cycles combined.

Non-Hazardous Waste Management

Hierarchy
Because no single waste management approach is suitable for managing all waste streams in all
circumstances, EPA developed a hierarchy ranking the most environmentally sound strategies for
municipal solid waste. The hierarchy places emphasis on reducing, reusing, and recycling the majority
of wastes and demonstrates the key components of EPA's Sustainable Materials Management Program
(SMM).

SMM is an effort to protect the

environment and conserve resources
for future generations through a
systems approach that seeks to
reduce materials use and their
associated environmental impacts
over their entire life cycles, starting
with extraction of natural resources
and product design and ending with
decisions on recycling or final
disposal.

Source Reduction
and Reuse
Source reduction, also known as waste prevention, means reducing waste at the source. It can take
many different forms, including reusing or donating items, buying in bulk, reducing packaging,
redesigning products, and reducing toxicity. Source reduction also is important in manufacturing.
Lightweighting of packaging, reuse, and remanufacturing are all becoming more popular business
trends. Purchasing products that incorporate these features supports source reduction.
Source reduction can:
Save natural resources;
Conserve energy;
Reduce pollution;
Reduce the toxicity of our waste; and
Save money for consumers and businesses alike.

Recycling/Composting
Recycling is a series of activities that includes the collection of used, reused, or unused items that
would otherwise be considered waste; sorting and processing the recyclable products into raw
materials; and remanufacturing the recycled raw materials into new products. Consumers provide the
last link in recycling by purchasing products made from recycled content. Recycling also can
include composting of food scraps, yard trimmings, and other organic materials.

Recycling prevents the emission of many greenhouse gases and water pollutants, saves energy,
supplies valuable raw materials to industry, creates jobs, stimulates the development of greener
technologies, conserves resources for our children's future, and reduces the need for new landfills and
combustors.

Energy Recovery
Energy recovery from waste is the conversion of non-recyclable waste materials into useable heat,
electricity, or fuel through a variety of processes, including combustion, gasification, pyrolization,
anaerobic digestion, and landfill gas (LFG) recovery. This process is often called waste-to-energy
(WTE).

Treatment and Disposal

Landfills are the most common form of waste disposal and are an important component of an
integrated waste management system. Landfills that accept municipal solid waste are primarily
regulated by state, tribal, and local governments. EPA, however, has established national standards
these landfills must meet in order to stay open. The federal landfill regulations have eliminated the
open dumps of the past. Todays landfills must meet stringent design, operation, and closure
requirements. Methane gas, a byproduct of decomposing waste, can be collected and used as fuel to
generate electricity. After a landfill is capped, the land may be used for recreation sites such as parks,
golf courses, and ski slopes.

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