Environmental Science 1021F/G Lecture Notes - Chlorophyta, Mollusca, Chordate
28 Jan 2013
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Document Summary
Nutrients are any chemicals that are required for the proper functioning of organisms. Animals require organic nutrition the biomass of other organisms. Four most important nutrient, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulpher. Nutrient cycling refers to the transfers (fluxes of h2o in atmosphere from gaseous to liquid. Nutrient flows and cycles water and vice versa), transformations (water to gas and back) , and recycling (nothing goes to waste, everything goes back through the cycle) of nutrients. A nutrient budget is a quantitative estimate of the quantities present in compartments and the fluxes (rates of movement) between them (we burn rocks/coal and it becomes gas in the atmosphere). The budget is how much is in each stage at a given time, or how much we have to work with. Most nutrient systems are open, there are inputs and outputs (do not memorize, just shows compartments, fluxes, and transformations of nutrient cycles. )
