Question

What is a biogeochemical cycle? What is the role of the reservoir in a biogeochemical cycle? Give an example of a sedimentary cycle with reservoir located in the earth’s crust.

Answer 1

The movement of nutrient elements through the various components of an ecosystem is called nutrient cycling. Another name of nutrient cycling is biogeochemical cycles (bio: living organism, geo: rocks, air, water).

Nutrient cycles are of two types:

1. Gaseous
2. Sedimentary.

The function of the reservoir is to meet the deficit which occurs due to an imbalance in the rate of influx and efflux. For the sedimentary cycle (e.g., sulphur and phosphorus cycle), the reservoir is located in Earth’s crust.