BIOL 2227 Chapter Notes - Chapter 19: Nitrogen Fixation, Nitrogen Cycle, Skink
Document Summary
Elements such as phosphorous, carbon, nitrogen, potassium, and iron are used over and over. Elements that are required for the development, maintenance and reproduction of organism are called nutrients; Ecologists refer to the use, transformation, movement, and reuse of nutrients in ecosystem as nutrient cycling. 19. 1 nutrient cycles: nutrient cycles involve the storage of chemical elements in nutrient pools, or compartments, and the flux or transfer of nutrients between pools. Nutrient pool: a nutrient pool is the amount of particular nutrient stored in a portion or compartment. Nutrient flux- moving nutrients between the pools of an ecosystem. These ecosystems are not closed systems so nutrients maybe lost from the ecosystem. Nutrient skink- part of biosphere where a particular nutrient is absorbed fast than is released. Phosphorus is essentials to the energetic, genetics, and structures of living systems. Phosphorous is not very abundant in the biosphere. The global phosphorous cycle does not include a substantial atmospheric pool.
