5. Cycles

Water cycle

The water cycle is one of the most essential features of the Amazon rainforest. Almost 390 billion trees act as giant pumps, soaking up water through their deep roots and releasing it through their leaves, a mechanism known as transpiration. One tree will lift about 100 gallons of water out of the ground and release it into the air every day!

The Carbon Cycle

The carbon cycle of the tropical rainforest is dependent on its wide variety of plants, specifically plants that absorb carbon dioxide from the surrounding atmosphere during photosynthesis. This carbon is used in a method known as photosynthesis, in the case of tropical rainforests; plants are a major component of the biome. When the plant breathes, dies or consumes the carbon inside the plants, it is released back into the atmosphere. The carbon is released into the ground where it is deposited as sediments underneath the river, ocean and lake beds. For millions of years, the sediment will gradually become a fossil fuel as humans mine rainforest soil for it. This carbon can also be consumed by the bodies of the animals as they eat the remains of the plant, and the carbon from this process is transferred from the producers (i.e. the strangler fig) to primary consumers such as the monkey, and then to secondary consumers such as iguanas, and then to tertiary consumers such as the jaguar. The carbon from this process is emitted by animal respiration and the tertiary predator dies. If the carbon is released, the cycle repeats and the carbon in the air is consumed by photosynthesizing the life of the plant.

The Nitrogen Cycle

When a plant dies, it releases nitrogen into the soil and water-or when herbivores that eat plants die or excrete nitrogen compounds. So this release of nitrogen goes through nitrogen fixation when my bacteria are absorbed and nitrates or nitrites are formed. It is then consumed by the plants and eaten by herbivores and carnivores. When these species die or excrete waste, the nitrogen is released back into the atmosphere. The nitrogen is then broken down and converted to ammonia by ammonia. When plants consume it the bacteria splits it up into nitrates by nitrification. Through denitrification, nitrates are returned to the atmosphere as nitrogen gas (completing the nitrogen cycle) by a bacteria that uses nitrate as an electron acceptor instead of oxygen. Since the rainforest is so huge, nitrogen is a significant component of the global nitrogen cycle. Many tropical rainforests are limited in their growth due to low nitrogen levels, as large amounts are absorbed into the soil and even into the water as dissolved nitrogen.

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