chapter 7

the part of the earth that supports life, including the oceans, atmosphere, land surface, and soils) as rocks weather, volcanoes erupt, and nitrogen is made available from the atmosphere by chemical transformations stimulated by lightninig discharge.

are substances, normally obtained in the diet, that are essential to organisms

the carbon CO 2 is inorganic carbon-- it is not associated with compounds formed by living organisms and it does not contain carbon--carbon or hydrogen bonds.

• our carbon atom, as part of the leaf
• some leaves are consumed and digested by animals.

is a condition in which the state of a system component is constant with time

is defined asw the average length of time a substance spends in a given resevoir that is at steady state

when a system is not steady state

when a system is not at steady state

• is carbon that is combined with oxygen.
• examples of oxidized carbon include the carbon in the skeletons o f some organisms and atmospheric CO 2.

is carbon that is combined mainly with other carbon atoms, hydrogen or nitrogen

is the amount of organic matter produced by photosynthesis in a unit time over a unit area of Earth's surface.

primary productivity

the amount depends on the population size of primary producers that is, plants (or other types of photosynthesizer or even chemosynthesizers that provide energy other organisms can use.

such organisms, including animals are called consumers

is the total mass of organic matter in living organisms in a particular resevoir

is an anerobic form of metabolisms in which both oxidized carbon (in CO2) and reduced carbon (often in methane are produced

is the uppermost part of the oceanic water column where there is sufficient light for photosynthesis: about the upper 100m of teh water column in the open ocean, and in shallower waters near shore, where water clarity is reduced

are free floating marine consumers, including small invertebrates and microorganisms such as foraminefera and radio larians

it is balanced by the conveyor-belt-like thermohaline cirulationn of teh ocean (chapter 5), which brings nutrients and carbon--rich waters back to the surface, replenishing the nutrients and carbon removed by the biological pump.

in honor of alfred C. Redfield the oceanographer who first described this phenomenon