carbon & water cycle

• Life on earth has existed for billions of years and this has been possible because it recycles everything from molecules like water and carbon dioxide to individual atoms like nitrogen phosphorus and carbon
• Because of all of this recycling, atoms can be used over and over again to make loads of different organisms over millions and millions of years
• Of the estimated six octillion atoms or six thousand trillion trillion atoms that you have inside you right now, you have countless atoms that have been in oceans volcanoes other animals and even other humans that have been recycled and are now inside you
• Cycles covered


  • Water cycle
  • Carbon cycle
• Water cycle


  1. Energy from the sun causes evaporation

  2. Water vapor accumulates and condenses into clouds

  3. Water falls back down as precipitation

  4. Water seeps into soil, flows into rivers, or is taken up by plants

  5. Cycle repeats
• Carbon cycle


  1. Carbon is stored in the air as carbon dioxide

  2. Carbon is stored in plants in biological molecules

  3. Carbon is stored in the soil in bacteria and microorganisms

  4. Carbon is stored in fossil fuels underground

  5. Carbon is stored in animals in biological molecules

  6. Plants take in carbon dioxide and convert it to biological molecules through photosynthesis

  7. Carbon is released back to the atmosphere through respiration

  8. Carbon is passed to animals that eat plants

  9. Carbon is released to the atmosphere when plants and animals die and are decayed by microorganisms

  10. Carbon may be converted to fossil fuels if not decayed aerobically

  11. Fossil fuels can be burned to release carbon dioxide
• The carbon cycle is more complex and includes more living organisms than the water cycle