Carbon is an element. By itself, its a black solid. You can see a lump of carbon in Figure 18.10. Carbon is incredibly important because of what it makes when it combines with many other elements. Carbon can form a wide variety of substances. For example, in the air, carbon combines with oxygen to form the gas carbon dioxide. In living things, carbon combines with several other elements. For example, it may combine with nitrogen and In the carbon cycle, carbon moves through living and nonliving things. Carbon actually moves through two cycles that overlap. One cycle is mainly biotic; the other cycle is mainly abiotic. Both cycles are shown in Figure 18.11. Producers such as plants or algae use carbon dioxide in the air to make food. The organisms combine carbon dioxide with water to make sugar. They store the sugar as starch. Both sugar and starch are carbohydrates. Consumers get carbon when they eat producers or other consumers. Carbon doesnt stop there. Living things get energy from food in a process called respiration. This releases carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. The cycle then repeats. Carbon from decaying organisms enters the ground. Some carbon is stored in the soil. Some carbon may be stored underground for millions of years. This will form fossil fuels. When volcanoes erupt, carbon from the mantle is released as carbon dioxide into the air. Producers take in the carbon dioxide to make food. Then the cycle repeats. The oceans also play an important role in the carbon cycle. Ocean water absorbs carbon dioxide from the air. In fact, the oceans contain 50 times more carbon than the atmosphere. Much of the carbon sinks to the bottom of the oceans, where it may stay for hundreds of years. Human actions are influencing the carbon cycle. Burning of fossil fuels releases the carbon dioxide that was stored in ancient plants. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and is a cause of global warming. Forests are also being destroyed. Trees may be cut down for their wood, or they may be burned to clear the land for farming. Burning wood releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. You can see how a tropical rainforest was cleared for farming in Figure 18.12. With forests shrinking, there are fewer trees to remove carbon dioxide from the air. This makes the greenhouse effect even worse. Living things also need nitrogen. Nitrogen is a key element in proteins. Like carbon, nitrogen cycles through ecosystems. You can see the nitrogen cycle in Figure 18.13. Air is about 78 percent nitrogen. Decomposers release nitrogen into the air from dead organisms and their wastes. However, producers such as plants cant use these forms of nitrogen. Nitrogen must combine with other elements before producers can use it. This is done by certain bacteria in the soil. Its called fixing nitrogen. Nitrogen is one of the most important nutrients needed by plants. Thats why most plant fertilizers contain nitrogen. Adding fertilizer to soil allows more plants to grow. As a result, a given amount of land can produce more food. So far, so good. But what happens next? Rain dissolves fertilizer in the soil. Runoff carries it away. The fertilizer ends up in bodies of water, from ponds to oceans. The nitrogen is a fertilizer in the water bodies. Since there is a lot of nitrogen it causes algae to grow out of control. Figure 18.14 shows a pond covered with algae. Algae may use up so much oxygen in the water that nothing else can grow. Soon, even the algae die out. Decomposers break down the dead tissue and use up all the oxygen in the water. This creates a dead zone. A dead zone is an area in a body of water where nothing grows because there is too little oxygen. There is a large dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. You can see it Figure 18.14.
Output: Without certain organisms that live in soil, plants would not be able to use