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Chapter 18.4
Chapter 18.4 vocab
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| biogeochemical cycle | how substances such as water, carbon, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus pass between the living and nonliving worlds |
| groundwater | water in the soil or in underground formations of porous rock |
| water cycle | the movement of water between various reservoirs |
| transpiration | the process of most water that evaporates from terrestrial ecosystems passing through plants |
| carbon cycle | Photosynthesis and cellular respiration form the basis of this short term |
| nitrogen cycle | the complex pathway that nitrogen follows in an ecosystem |
| nitrogen fixation | the process of converting N2 gas to nitrate |
| nitrogen-fixing bacteria | most organisms rely on this ; it transforms nitrogen gas into a usable form |
| ammonification | the process of decomposers breaking down materials like dead bodies, poop, and pee and releasing the nitrogen that contain as ammonia, NH3, which in soil becomes NH4 |
| nitrification | the process of soil bacteria taking up ammonium and oxidizing it into nitrites, NO2-, and nitrates, NO3- |
| denitrification | the way that nitrogen it returned to the atmosphere |
| phosphorus cycle | the movement of phosphorus from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment |
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CoffeyM20