Cycles WebQuest
General website you may find helpful:
http://poster.4teachers.org/worksheet/view.php?id=123451
Water Cycle
http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Water/water_cycle.html
http://education.jlab.org/reading/water_cycle.html
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/index.html
1. How is water stored on Earth during the water cycle?
2. Water moves into the atmosphere through _______ and _________ and returns to the Earth
through ____________.
3. What is the difference between infiltration and runoff?
4. Where do groundwater and runoff usually end up?
5.What are three ways global warming might affect the water cycle?
Fill in the Blank
____ evaporates ____from lakes and oceans. As the
air rises, it cools. The water vapor condenses into tiny droplets of
water. The droplets crowd together and form a ____. Wind
blows the ____towards the land. The tiny droplets join together and
fall as precipitation to the ____. The water soaks into the ground and collects in
___. The _____ ____ that never ends has started again!
T
Nitrogen Cycle
Go to the web site: http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/9s.html for help with
the
nitrogen cycle
http://www.cst.cmich.edu/centers/mwrc/nitrogen.htm
1. Why is nitrogen important?
2. How is nitrogen from the atmosphere, the abiotic part of the ecosystem, converted in to the
biotic part of the ecosystem in organisms?.
3. How do consumers get nitrogen?
4. How does nitrogen return to the atmosphere? 5. Go to the following site and place a number
next to the steps involved in the nitrogen cycle:
http://ridge.icu.ac.jp/gen-ed/ecosystem-jpgs/nitrogen-cycle.jpg
o nitrogen-fixation – (nitrogen in atmosphere converted to ammonia by lightning or nitrogen-fixing
bacteria) _____
o nitrification (ammonia converted to nitrates by nitrifying bacteria)_______
o assimilation (plants absorb nitrates, incorporate into proteins. Nitrogen in now in the food chain)
_____
o ammonification (dead plants/animals converted to ammonia by ammonifying bacteria) _____
o denitrification (some
nitrates are returned to
atmosphere by
denitrifying bacteria)
_______
Phosphorus Cycle
Go the the web site: http://elmhcx9.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/308phosphorus.html
and
http://www.princeton.edu/pei/news/archive/?id=7060 for help.
1. Why is phosphorus important to living organisms? The bodies of living organisms need
phosphorus for DNA.
2. How is the phosphorus cycle different from the nitrogen or carbon cycles? It is different from
the other cycles because it isn’t available in the state of gas, only on solids, liquids and
sediments.
3. How does phosphorus initially enter the cycle? Phosphorus that’s stored on rocks and deposits
from a long time ago.
4. What do plants do with it?
Plants absorb it from the soil.
5. How do herbivores get it?
They eat the plants and the plants have
phosphorus.
6. How do carnivores get it?
Carnivores eat the herbivores that have
phosphorus because they ate the plants.
7. How do herbivores and carnivores
return phosphorus to the cycle? When
the animals die, they decompose onto the
land. The plants then absorb the
phosphorus.
8. Why do living things need phosphorus?
Living things need phosphorus because
it’s what allows us to have DNA and RNA.