Biosphere

For organisms to live, appropriate environmental conditions must exist in terms of temperature, moisture, energy supply, and nutrient availability.

Energy is needed to drive the functions that organisms perform, such as growth, movement, waste removal, and reproduction. Ultimately, this energy is supplied from a source outside the biosphere, in the form of visible radiation received from the Sun. This electro-magnetic radiation is captured and stored by plants through the process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis involves a light-induced, enzymatic reaction between carbon dioxide and water, which produces oxygen and glucose, an organic compound. The glucose is used, through an immense diversity of biochemical reactions, to manufacture the huge range of other organic compounds found in organisms. Potential energy is stored in the chemical bonds of organic molecules and can be released through the process of respiration; this involves enzymatic reactions between organic molecules and oxygen to form carbon dioxide, water, and energy. The growth of organisms is achieved by the accumulation of organic matter, also known as biomass. Plants and some microorganisms are the only organisms that can form organic molecules by photosynthesis. Heterotrophic organisms, including humans, ultimately rely on photosynthetic organisms to supply their energy needs.

The major elements that comprise the chemical building blocks of organisms are carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, calcium, and magnesium. Organisms can only acquire these elements if they occur in chemical forms that can be assimilated from the environment; these are termed available nutrients. Nutrients contained in dead organisms and biological wastes are transformed by decomposition into compounds that organisms can reutilize. In addition, organisms can utilize some mineral sources of nutrients. All of the uptake, excretion, and transformation reactions are aspects of nutrient cycling.

The various chemical forms in which carbon occurs can be used to illustrate nutrient cycling. Carbon occurs as the gaseous molecule carbon dioxide, and in the immense diversity of organic compounds that make up living organisms and dead biomass. Gaseous carbon dioxide is transformed to solid organic compounds (simple sugars) by the process of photosynthesis, as mentioned previously. As organisms grow they deplete the atmosphere of carbon dioxide. If this were to continue without carbon dioxide being replenished at the same rate as the consumption, the atmosphere would eventually be depleted of this crucial nutrient. However, carbon dioxide is returned to the atmosphere at about the same rate that it is consumed, as organisms respire their organic molecules, and microorganisms decompose dead biomass, or when wildfire occurs.