Intro to biogeochemical cycles

Key points

Energy flows through an ecosystem and is dissipated as heat, but chemical elements are recycled.

The ways in which an elementor compound such as watermoves between its various living and nonliving forms and locations in the
biosphere is called a biogeochemical cycle.

Biogeochemical cycles important to living organisms include the water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, and sulfur cycles.

Introduction

What is your body made of? Not to put too fine a point on it: atoms. Lots and lots of them. About

7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to be precise. ^11start superscript, 1, end superscriptWhere did all of those

atoms come from?

If we really walk it backwards, most of the elements that make up our bodiesand those of every other living

thing!were born in dying stars billions of years ago. That's pretty cool, but it doesn't capture the whole picture.

What have the atoms of your body been doing more recently, during their time on Earth?

Energy flows, but matter is recycled.

Energy flows directionally through Earths ecosystems, typically entering in the form of sunlight and exiting in the

form of heat. However, the chemical components that make up living organisms are different: they get recycled.

What does that mean? For one thing, the atoms in your body are not brand new. Instead, they've been cycling

through the biosphere for a long, long time, and they've been part of many organisms and nonliving compounds

along the way. You may or may not believe in reincarnation as a spiritual concept, but there's no question that atoms

in your body have been part of a huge number of living and nonliving things over the course of time!
(

Insert IMAGE _

the diagram above compares how energy and matter move through ecosystems. Energyyellow arrowstypically enters in the form of sunlight, then it is captured in

the form of chemical bonds by producers such as plants, and finally it is transferred to consumers, such as animals that eat the plants or eat other animals. Eventually,
 the plants and animals die, and the chemical-bond energy in their bodies and waste products is released by decomposers. In each transfer, some energy is converted to

the unusable form of heatred arrowsand, eventually, all of the energy is dissipated.

The atomsgreen arrowsthat make up the bodies of organisms, in contrast, are not lost. Although the energy contained in the bonds between atoms may be

released as heat, the atoms themselves remain. They are simply recycled, changing forms and ultimately going to replenish the pool of inorganic elements and

compounds incorporated into the tissues of the producers.)

Which biogeochemical cycles are key to life?

Water, which contains hydrogen and oxygen, is essential for living organisms. That places the water cycle pretty

high on the list of cycles we care about!

The hydrospherethe set of places where water can be found as it cycles on Earthis large and diverse. Water is

present as a liquid on the Earth's surface and underneath the ground, as ice in the polar ice caps and glaciers, and as

water vapor in the atmosphere. For more information about how water cycles among these forms, check out

the water cycle article.

Water makes up more than half of our bodies, but humans cannot live by water alone. Instead, there are some other

key elements that keep our bodies running and are part of biogeochemical cycles:

Carbon is found in all organic macromolecules and is also a key component of fossil fuels. See the carbon

cycle article for more info.

Nitrogen is needed for our \text{DNA}DNAD, N, A, \text{RNA}RNAR, N, A, and proteins and is

critical to human agriculture. See the nitrogen cycle article for more info.

Phosphorus is a key component of \text{DNA}DNAD, N, A and \text{RNA}RNAR, N, A and is one of

the main ingredientsalong with nitrogenin artificial fertilizers used in agriculture. See phosphorous cycle article

for more info.

Sulfur is key to protein structure and is released to the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels.
 These cycles don't happen in isolation, and the water cycle is a particularly important driver of other biogeochemical

cycles. For example, the movement of water is critical for the leaching of nitrogen and phosphate into rivers, lakes,

and oceans. The ocean is also a major reservoirholding tankfor carbon.

Though each element or compound takes its own route, all of these key chemical nutrients cycle through the

biosphere, moving between the bioticlivingand abioticnonlivingworlds and from one living organism to

another.

Key points
A population consists of all the organisms of a given species that live in a particular
area.

The statistical study of populations and how they change over time is
called demography.

Two important measures of a population are population size, the number of individuals,
and population density, the number of individuals per unit area or volume.

Ecologists estimate the size and density of populations using quadrats and the mark-
recapture method.

The organisms in a population may be distributed in a uniform, random,

or clumped pattern. Uniform means that the population is evenly spaced, random
indicates random spacing, and clumped means that the population is distributed in
clusters.

What is a population?
Image credit: Population sign, Gross, Nebraska, USA by Brian Kell, public domain

In everyday life, we often think about population as the number of people who live in a
particular placeNew York City has a population of 8.6 million.^11start superscript, 1,
end superscript Or Gross, Nebraska has a population of three. Just thinkyou could
boost the population of Gross by 33% if you felt like moving there!

In ecology, a population consists of all the organisms of a particular species living in a

given area. For instance, we could say that a population of humans lives in New York
City, and that another population of humans lives in Gross. We can describe these
populations by their sizewhat we often mean by population when we're talking about
towns and citiesas well as by their densityhow many people per unit areaand
distributionhow clumped or spread out the people are.

Demography: describing populations and how they

change
In many cases, ecologists aren't studying people in towns and cities. Instead, they're
studying various kinds of plant, animal, fungal, and even bacterial populations. The
statistical study of any population, human or otherwise, is known as demography.

Why is demography important? Populations can change in their numbers and structure
for example age and sex distributionfor various reasons. These changes can affect how
the population interacts with its physical environment and with other species.

By tracking populations over time, ecologists can see how these populations have
changed and may be able to predict how they're likely to change in the future. Monitoring
the size and structure of populations can also help ecologists manage populationsfor
example, by showing whether conservation efforts are helping an endangered species
increase in numbers.

In this article, we'll begin our journey through demographics by looking at the concepts
of population size, density, and distribution. We'll also explore some methods ecologists
use to determine these values for populations in nature.

Population size and density

To study the demographics of a population, we'll want to start off with a few baseline
measures. One is simply the number of individuals in the population, or population
 sizeNNN. Another is the population density, the number of individuals per area or
volume of habitat.

Size and density are both important in describing the current status of the population and,
potentially, for making predictions about how it could change in the future:

Larger populations may be more stable than smaller populations because theyre likely to
have greater genetic variability and thus more potential to adapt to changes in the
environment through natural selection.

A member of a low-density populationwhere organisms are sparsely spread out

might have more trouble finding a mate to reproduce with than an individual in a high-
density population.

Measuring population size

To find the size of a population, cant we just count all the organisms in it? Ideally, yes!
But in many real-life cases, this isnt possible. For instance, would you want to try and
count every single grass plant in your lawn? Or every salmon in, say, Lake Ontario,
which is 393 cubic miles in volume?^11start superscript, 1, end superscript Counting all
the organisms in a population may be too expensive in terms of time and money, or it
may simply not be possible.

For these reasons, scientists often estimate a population's size by taking one or more
samples from the population and using these samples to make inferences about the
population as a whole. A variety of methods can be used to sample populations to
determine their size and density. Here, well look at two of the most important:
the quadrat and mark-recapture methods.

Quadrat method
For immobile organisms such as plantsor for very small and slow-moving organisms
plots called quadrats may be used to determine population size and density. Each quadrat
marks off an area of the same sizetypically, a square areawithin the habitat. A
quadrat can be made by staking out an area with sticks and string or by using a wood,
plastic, or metal square placed on the ground, as shown in the picture below.

After setting up quadrats, researchers count the number of individuals within the
boundaries of each one. Multiple quadrat samples are performed throughout the habitat at
several random locations, which ensures that the numbers recorded are representative for
the habitat overall. In the end, the data can be used to estimate the population size and
population density within the entire habitat.

Mark-recapture method
For organisms that move around, such as mammals, birds, or fish, a technique called
the mark-recapture method is often used to determine population size. This method
involves capturing a sample of animals and marking them in some wayfor instance,
using tags, bands, paint, or other body markings, as shown below. Then, the marked
animals are released back into the environment and allowed to mix with the rest of the
population.

Summary
In ecology, a population consists of all the organisms of a given species that live in a
particular area. The statistical study of populations and how they change over time is
called demography.
Two important measures of a population are population size, the number of individuals,
and population density, the number of individuals per unit area or volume. Ecologists
often estimate the size and density of populations using *quadrats * and the mark-
recapture method.

A population can also be described in terms of the distribution, or dispersion, of the

individuals that make it up. Individuals may be distributed in a uniform, random,
or clumped pattern. Uniform means that the population is evenly spaced, random
indicates random spacing, and clumped means that the population is distributed in
clusters.