Biogeochemical Cycles

5. breaking down of rocks, soils, and minerals through contact with the Earth's atmosphere.
6. plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water.
7. the change of water from its gaseous form (water vapor) into liquid water.
9. reverse of nitrogen fixation; nitrates converted to nitrogen gas, which is diffused back into the atmosphere
10. nature's way of reusing carbon atoms, which travel from the atmosphere into organisms in the Earth and then back into the atmosphere over and over again.

1. chemical processes by which atmospheric nitrogen is assimilated into organic compounds, especially by certain microorganisms as part of the nitrogen cycle.
2. the path that all water follows as it moves around Earth in different states.
3. happens when water falls down to Earth's surface.
4. pathway that water moves from the liquid state back into the water cycle as atmospheric water vapor.
8. The procsess by which nitrogen moves through both living and nonliving things: the atmosphere, soil, water, plants, animals and bacteria.
11. nitrogen converted to ammonia or ammonium by bacteria.