Trees shed leaves all year round -> Decaying vegetation decomposes rapidly -> Nutrients enter the soil -> Shallow roots take up the nutrients -> Trees grow rapidly -> (back to shedding leaves)
Broken Nutrient Cycle
DEFORESTATION -> Less vegetation -> Fewer leaves and twigs fall to the forest floor -> Less leaf litter -> Fewer nutrients enter the soil -> Soil becomes infertile -> (back to less vegetation)
Nutrient Cycling
INPUT Soil: weathered rock
Soil -> Biomass: uptake by plants
Biomass -> Litter: fallout as tissues die
Litter -> Soil: release as litter decomposes
INPUT Litter: dissolved in rain (from the atmosphere)
LOSS Litter: runoff
LOSS Soil: leaching
Biomass
Plant/animal matter
Input
Entering the system
Leaching
Washed away by water.
Litter
Dead organic matter.
Runoff
Water running over the surface of the land.
Nutrient Cycling (def)
A set of processes during which organisms extract minerals necessary for growth from soil or water, before passing them on through the food chain - and then back to the soil and water.
