NATURAL BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES BARRON WORDS AND DEFINITIONS
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| 5208035152 | Ammonia | NH3 | 0 | |
| 5208035153 | Ammonification | the conversion by bacteria of nitrogen compounds from plants and animals in soil or water to ammonia and ammonium. | 1 | |
| 5208035154 | Ammonium | NH4+ | 2 | |
| 5208035156 | Calcareous sediments | composed of, containing, or characteristic of calcium carbonate, calcium, or limestone. | 3 | |
| 5208035157 | Carbon cycle | the organic circulation of carbon from the atmosphere into organisms and back again. | 4 | |
| 5208035158 | Carbon fixation | the removal of atmospheric carbon in the form of carbon dioxide gas in air to be converted into organic molecules like sugar by primary producers. | 5 | |
| 5208035159 | Carbon sink | places of carbon accumulation such as in large forests (organic compounds) or ocean sediments (calcium carbonate); carbon is thus removed from the carbon cycle for moderately long to very long periods of time. | 6 | |
| 5208035160 | Chemotroph | an organism that manufactures its own food through the oxidation of inorganic chemical compounds, as opposed to photosynthesis. | 7 | |
| 5208035161 | Condensation | the process of changing from a gaseous to a liquid or solid state. | 8 | |
| 5208035162 | Denitrification | the process by which bacteria convert nitrate into molecular nitrogen. Common in anerobic environmnets | 9 | |
| 5208035163 | Detritivores | also known as detritus feeders or saprophages. Heterotrophs that obtain nutrients by consuming detritus (decomposing organic matter). | 10 | |
| 5208035164 | Infiltration | the process by which water on the ground surface enters the soil. | 11 | |
| 5208035165 | Leaching | the loss of water-soluble plant nutrients from the soil, due to rain and/or irrigation. | 12 | |
| 5208035166 | Legumes | plants of the pod or pea family (e.g., soybean) that have nitrogen-fixing bacteria on nodules on their roots thereby increasing soil nitrogen content. | 13 | |
| 5208035168 | Nitrate | NO3- |  | 14 |
| 5208035169 | Nitrification | the process of converting reduced nitrogen (as ammonia or ammonium) to its more oxidized forms (nitrite or nitrate ions). | 15 | |
| 5208035170 | Nitrite | NO2- |  | 16 |
| 5208035171 | Nitrobacter | bacterium that converts NO2- into NO3-. | 17 | |
| 5208035172 | Nitrogen assimilation | the incorporation of inorganic nitrogen compounds (mostly ammonium NH4+ ) into organic molecules such as amino acids in plants. | 18 | |
| 5208035173 | Nitrogen cycle | the transformation of nitrogen from an atmospheric gas to organic compounds in the soil, then to compounds in plants, and eventually the release of nitrogen gas back into the atmosphere. | 19 | |
| 5208035174 | Nitrogen dioxide NO2 | Results from nitric oxide combining with oxygen in the atmosphere. A major component of photochemical smog and one of the six "criteria" pollutants for which EPA has set national ambient air quality standards. | 20 | |
| 5208035175 | Nitrogen fixation | the capture and conversion of atmospheric nitrogen gas into nitrogen compounds, stored in the soil to be used by plants. | 21 | |
| 5208035176 | Nitrosomonas | the bacterium that converts NH4+ to NO2-. | 22 | |
| 5208035178 | Phosphate | PO43- |  | 23 |
| 5208035179 | Phosphorus cycle | the process by which phosphorus is recycled in the ecosystem. Does not have an atmospheric component. | 24 | |
| 5208035180 | Sublimation | to change state from a solid to a gas (or from a gas to a solid) without passing through the liquid state. | 25 | |
| 5208035182 | Sulfur cycle | the natural cycle that includes the mineralization of organic sulfur to sulfide, oxidation to sulfate, and reduction to sulfide, followed by microbial incorporation into organic compounds. | 26 | |
| 5208035185 | Water cycle | the natural cycle of evaporation of water from the oceans, lakes, rivers, etc., and subsequent condensation and precipitation as rain and snow. | 27 | |
| 5208084771 | Transpiration | The process by which plants release water vapor into the air through stomata | 28 | |
| 5208131940 | Nitrogen oxides NOx | A group of nitrogen-oxygen compounds formed when some of the nitrogen gas in the air combines with oxygen during high-temperature combustion. | 29 | |
| 5208207233 | Haber-Bosch Process | The use of extremely high pressures and temperatures to synthesize ammonia using nitrogen and hydrogen | 30 | |
| 5208189735 | Runoff | Part of the water cycle where an excess of water runs down and does not sink into the soil and eventually makes it to the rivers, lakes, and oceans. | 31 | |
| 5208215475 | Crop Rotation | The practice of alternating the crops grown on a piece of land - for example, corn one year, legumes for two years, and then back to corn. Legumes help replenish fixed nitrogen in the soil. | 32 | |
| 5211270854 | Reservoir | A place where a large quantity of a resource sits for a long period of time. | 33 | |
| 5211289153 | Flux | An action within a biogeochemical cycle that moves a substance from one reservoir to another. | 34 | |
| 5211289154 | Sink | A reservoir that accepts more nutrients than it releases. Contents of a sink typically have long residence times | 35 | |
| 5211347566 | Source | A reservoir that releases more nutrients than it accepts. Contents of a source typically have short residence times. | 36 |
