Natural cycles
Just like living organisms, non-living factors are just as important in keeping and systematic healthy. The natural cycles regulate and balance the energy and resources on earth. Cycles and living things are both interdependent on each other for the worlds health. Two of the most important cycles are the water cycle and the nitrogen cycle.
The Water cycle summary
Water constantly cycles through the world, it will never disappear. like any form of matter water cannot be created or destroyed, it simply changes form as described by the water cycle. Water can be in the form of a liquid, solid or gas. Lets say it begins as a liquid. It starts the cycle as ground water or in a body of water. It can then be transformed into water vapor by evaporation. as the water vapor floats higher into the air or when it encounters a cold surface it cools and condenses back into a cloud or into condensation. at this point the cloud can continues cooling and collecting water vapor and eventually condense enough to form the liquid precipitate. If a liquid condenses enough on a surface it can eventually run into another body of water as run off. water can come from more than a stream or lake, it can also evaporate directly from plants via transpiration.
The Nitrogen cycle summary
Nitrogen is a very important element for life. It helps to make up amino acids which make up all proteins. nitrogen is especially important in plants. Just like water, nitrogen cycles through an environment. Much of our atmosphere is nitrogen. This nitrogen can be transferred from the air to the soil by nitrogen fixating bacteria that live in plants. The plants root nodules that contain Bacteria that convert nitrogen into nitrates and add them to the soil. The nitrates are then converted into ammonia by more nitrogen fixating bacteria in the soil via ammonification. The ammonia is converted back into nitrogen by nitrifying bacteria. The new nitrates are absorbed by plants and the plans are eaten by animals. when these plans and animals die the nitrates are excreted back into the soil where denitrifying bacteria convert the excreted nitrogen back into atmospheric nitrogen.