Nutrient Cycles

Nutrient cycling — also known as the biogeochemical cycle — is the movement of nutrient elements through the various components of an ecosystem. Organisms need a constant supply of nutrients such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium to grow and reproduce, and the concentration of these nutrients in the soil varies across different kinds of ecosystems and across seasons. Crucially, these nutrients are never permanently lost from ecosystems — they are recycled indefinitely between the biotic and abiotic worlds. …