BIO373H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Deep Ocean Water, Dna Supercoil, Thermophile
Document Summary
Prokaryotic biomass is in: aquatic habitat, soil, subsurface sediment, inside animals majority. Deep ocean water has the most prokaryotes even though it"s a lower cell density. Carbon from prokaryotes are 60-100% of the total carbon in plants, as well as nitrogen + phosphorus. We"ve tried to study soil with lab approaches but soil is complex and heterogeneous which is impossible to describe with chemical or physical models. Soil exists as a gradient, mix of materials open system that is affected by wind energy/solar energy, rain, erosion, human activities. It"s an assembly of solid/liquid/gas its chemical composition has not been completely found because you have to consider abiotic reactions (rain, dilution, and hydrolysis). Soil is always subject to dynamic changes, it"s never static. There"s 6 independent soil reactions: solid mineral phases, surface absorption, nutrient uptake for plants, soil air, organic matter, water flux.
