nutrient recycling

• nutrients

  substances essential to living organisms
• carbon dioxide, oxygen, water, and mineral salts are examples of nutrients
• these substances are not endless and can be exhausted so there is a process that makes these nutrients available for use again and again this is called nutrient recycling.
• nutrient recycling

  green plants manufacture food using photosynthesis, the food [containing energy] from the plant is transferred to animals when they feed on plants, this food is then transferred to carnivores when they feed on herbivores, when plants, herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores die their bodies are decomposed by decomposers, the energy [in the form of heat] and carbon dioxide are released in the atmosphere while water and mineral salts are released back to the ground, this nutrients can be used by other plants or animals.
• if nutrient recycling did not occur these substances would become exhausted because they would be trapped in the animal or plant bodies
• water cycle[precipitation]

  precipitation occurs when water vapour from the atmosphere falls to the ground in the form of rain, dew, or hail, some of this water reaches the soil and goes to rivers or lakes, and some of this water is soaked into the soil and remains in soil particles as capillary water, plants use their roots to absorb water, animals obtain their water from rivers, lakes, and, the food they eat, plants lose water during transpiration and animals lose water through breathing and sweating.
• water cycle[evaporation]


  heating in the ground or air can result in water changing from liquid to water vapour, the water rises to the air and evaporation occurs, as the air rises to higher altitudes cooling occurs followed by condensation, this results to cloud formations, the clouds hold a maximum capacity of water it falls as precipitation, this will repeat.
• both plants and animals can break down organic compounds during cellular respiration
• carbon cycle

  animals obtain energy from food, carbon is present in both bodies of plants and animals, and both plants and animals release carbon dioxide as a product of cellular respiration, when plants or animals die decomposers break down these bodies and release more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, sometimes decomposers do not break down these organisms instead these organisms become compressed and become fossil fuels, when these fossil fuels are burnt carbon dioxide is released back into the air.