Environmental Nutrient Cycles and Their Impacts

The Earth has several important cycles that move nutrients and chemicals through the environment.

The water cycle describes how water evaporates from oceans and lakes, forms clouds through

condensation, and falls back to Earth as precipitation like rain or snow before flowing back

into waterways. The carbon cycle shows how carbon moves between the atmosphere,

plants, animals, and the ground. Plants take in carbon dioxide during photosynthesis,

animals release it through respiration, and burning fossil fuels adds extra carbon to the air.

The nitrogen cycle explains how nitrogen from the air is turned into forms plants can use by

bacteria in the soil. Then animals eat the plants, and decomposers