The Carbon Cycle

This drawing shows the carbon cycle.

Carbon is an element. It is part of oceans, air, rocks, soil and all living things. Carbon doesnt
stay in one place. It is always on the move!

Carbon moves from the atmosphere to plants.

In the atmosphere, carbon is attached to oxygen in a gas called carbon dioxide (CO2).
With the help of the Sun, through the process of photosynthesis, carbon dioxide is pulled
from the air to make plant food from carbon.
Carbon moves from plants to animals.
Through food chains, the carbon that is in plants moves to the animals that eat them.
Animals that eat other animals get the carbon from their food too.
Carbon moves from plants and animals to the ground.
When plants and animals die, their bodies, wood and leaves decay bringing the carbon
into the ground. Some becomes buried miles underground and will become fossil fuels in
millions and millions of years.
Carbon moves from living things to the atmosphere.
Each time you exhale, you are releasing carbon dioxide gas (CO2) into the atmosphere.
Animals and plants get rid of carbon dioxide gas through a process called respiration.
Carbon moves from fossil fuels to the atmosphere when fuels are burned.
When humans burn fossil fuels to power factories, power plants, cars and trucks, most of
the carbon quickly enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide gas. Each year, five and a
half billion tons of carbon is released by burning fossil fuels. Thats the weight of 100
million adult African elephants! Of the huge amount of carbon that is released from fuels,
3.3 billion tons enters the atmosphere and most of the rest becomes dissolved in seawater.
Carbon moves from the atmosphere to the oceans.
The oceans, and other bodies of water, soak up some carbon from the atmosphere.
Earth's Water Cycle

Earth's Water Cycle

Water is always on the move. Rain falling where you live may have been water in the ocean just
days before. And the water you see in a river or stream may have been snow on a high
mountaintop.

Water can be in the atmosphere, on the land, in the ocean, and even underground. It is recycled
over and over through the water cycle. In the cycle, water changes state between liquid, solid
(ice), and gas (water vapor).

Most water vapor gets into the atmosphere by a process called evaporation. This process turns
the water that is at the top of the ocean, rivers, and lakes into water vapor in the atmosphere
using energy from the Sun. Water vapor can also form from snow and ice through the process of
sublimation and can evaporate from plants by a process called transpiration.

The water vapor rises in the atmosphere and cools, forming tiny water droplets by a process
called condensation. Those water droplets make up clouds. If those tiny water droplets combine
with each other they grow larger and eventually become too heavy to stay in the air. Then they
fall to the ground as rain, snow, and other types of precipitation.

Most of the precipitation that falls becomes a part of the ocean or part of rivers, lakes, and
streams that eventually lead to the ocean. Some of the snow and ice that falls as precipitation
stays at the Earth surface in glaciers and other types of ice. Some of the precipitation seeps into
the ground and becomes a part of the groundwater.

Water stays in certain places longer than others. A drop of water may spend over 3,000 years in
the ocean before moving on to another part of the water cycle while a drop of water spends an
average of just eight days in the atmosphere before falling back to Earth.
The Nitrogen Cycle

The Nitrogen Cycle

Nitrogen is an element. It is found in living things like plants and animals. It is also an important
part of non-living things like the air above and the dirt below. Atoms of nitrogen don't just stay
in one place. They move slowly between living things, dead things, the air, soil and water. These
movements are called the nitrogen cycle.

Most of the nitrogen on Earth is in the atmosphere. Approximately 80% of the molecules in
Earth's atmosphere are made of two nitrogen atoms bonded together (N2). All plants and animals
need nitrogen to make amino acids, proteins and DNA, but the nitrogen in the atmosphere is not
in a form that they can use. The molecules of nitrogen in the atmosphere can become usable for
living things when they are broken apart during lightning strikes or fires, by certain types of
bacteria, or by bacteria associated with bean plants.

Most plants get the nitrogen they need to grow from the soils or water in which they live.
Animals get the nitrogen they need by eating plants or other animals that contain nitrogen. When
organisms die, their bodies decompose bringing the nitrogen into soil on land or into ocean
water. Bacteria alter the nitrogen into a form that plants are able to use. Other types of bacteria
are able to change nitrogen dissolved in waterways into a form that allows it to return to the
atmosphere.

Certain actions of humans are causing changes to the nitrogen cycle and the amount of nitrogen
that is stored in the land, water, air, and organisms. The use of nitrogen-rich fertilizers can add
too much nitrogen in nearby waterways as the fertilizer washes into streams and ponds. The
waste associated with livestock farming also adds large amounts of nitrogen into soil and water.
The increased nitrate levels cause plants to grow rapidly until they use up the supply and die. The
number of plant-eating animals will increase when the plant supply increases and then the
animals are left without any food when the plants die.