Asked in Environmental IssuesEcosystemsBiodiversity
What is the importance of the nutrient cycle?
Answer

Wiki User
July 09, 2015 10:55AM
Food nutrient cycle is a process by which nutrients are passed from living things to non-living things in a continuous cycle.
Nutrients are the chemicals needed by all living things and are continually cycled through ecosystems.
Examples: Water, Carbon, Nitrogen and Phosphorous.
Water - to drink
Carbon - plants absorb to created oxygen
Nitrogen - Plants gather it from the atmosphere (we can't use it in this form), the Nitrogen is converted into Nitrates which plants use and then released back into the atmosphere as nitrogen.
Phosphorous - absorbed by plants.
All of the life on earth revolves around a few key nutrients and in
combination with energy form the sun it is theses nutrients which
are required by all of earth's producers. These nutrients are
essentially contained within a closed system on earth, which means
no nutrients enter or leave the biosphere in large quantities. For
this reason there is a limited amount of the essential nutrients
available to the producers, so the available nutrients such as
carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus must be recycled and reused by
organisms. The recycling of these nutrients involves interactions
between both the living organisms and the physical environment, so
they are called biogeochemical cycles. These cycles are often
considered to be "leaky" since nutrients such as nitrogen and
phosphorus may be carried away in rain water to the deep ocean
where it is removed from the cycle, other sources of nutrient loss
include harvesting and burning of organic material. The following
nutrient cycles are of utmost importance to all life and earth and
are reported on thoroughly.
Nutrient Cycles:
· Water Cycle
· Carbon Cycle
· Nitrogen Cycle
· Phosphorus Cycle