A friendly reminder: If you have not yet presented your planet to me or the class, please see me to make arrangements to do so. It is good practice and it is also worth some valuable marks for this first unit.
Please get your planet handout to me ASAP as well so I can distribute them to the rest of the class.
Today you will need to access these resources about The Earth’s Systems. (they are all in PDF format)
Earths 4 spheres– Read through this and create a chart or mind map summarizing the 4 spheres. 
Earth’s Systems1 The Energy Cycle
earths systems2 the Energy Cycle con’t
earths systems3 Nutrient cycle, water cycle
earths systems4 carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle
earths systems5 phosporus cycle
Today’s Assignment: Choose one of the Earth’s systems (cycles) to summarize into your own words. Then post your answer below as a comment. If someone else has already chosen it, choose a different one OR add some additional details under their comment. Your comment is DUE by Friday (tomorrow).
CGF3M-Physical Geography 
The phosphorus cycle is the cycle in which the element known as phosphorus moves throughout the biosphere and geosphere then repeats. the phosphorus can be found in the atmosphere and collects with dust particles or soil particles that move throughout the atmosphere. when rocks that contain phosphate are weathered, they usually settle in the hydrospheres lower rivers, also known as sediments, or in the earths soild and picked up by the plant life and is incorporated within the tissue. same thing happens in the seaweed and algea in water. then the phosphorus is eaten by larger mammels or sea life then the phosphorus gives off nutrients to the thing that ate it. after that, the phosphorus is usually returned to through the animals waste or when an animal dies. after this the bacteria that surrounds the waste or dead organism will then disperse the phosphorus back into the soil, making the phosphorus available to be taken by plant life once again.
The Carbon Cycle is a Biogeochemical cycle, which basically means that a chemical element or compound is changed as it passes through Earth’s systems. Carbon can enter the atmosphere in many different ways. Living animals breathe out Carbon dioxide (CO2), The process of decomposition also gives off CO2, and the burning of Carbon based materials such as oil and coal give off the most CO2. The Carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere can also be removed by living creatures on Earth. Phytoplankton and plants remove about 40 percent of CO2 from the atmosphere through a process called ‘Photosynthesis’. During this process some complex compounds are made, such as glucose and Oxygen, both of which are very important to all life on Earth. The Carbon that is removed from the atmosphere can be stored for long periods of time, but most of the time it is stored in the tissues of living animals and plants for the length of their lifespan, then the stored carbon gets released again back into the atmosphere through Decomposition, and the process will keep repeating and repeating.
Meant to reply to the main post, not to Warren,
The water cycle is also known as the Hydrologic cycle. Some main parts of the water cycle is evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection. water is the only nature product that is found as a gas, liquid and a solid. During the day the water evaporates from the heat of the sun therefore water breaks down to molecules and sticks together as the water rises into the atmosphere. As the water rises the water starts to cool, which causes condensation as the water turns into a liquid again but as condensation takes place the water quickly turns into a solid such as snow, hail, and ice. Precipitation then quickly takes places as clouds form, as the clouds produces snow, rain, ice, and hail by the temperature that is in the air. This cycle then repeats.
The Water Cycle Continuation
The water cycle is an amazing natural process indeed but what if our Earth didn’t go through all the effort in doing this? If you think the water cycle is nothing but an over rated process that doesn’t involve your life what so ever than think again. In fact, the water cycle has absolutely everything to do with your life. Think about it, without the constant cycle of evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection we wouldn’t have weather or clouds to carry the rain from the ocean. No weather and clouds equals no inland rainfall. Well you might be asking yourself, “Would I even care if it didn’t rain at all? I mean, I wouldn’t mind it being sunny all day” Well stop right there because without that rainfall we get every now and then all our plants would dry up and die. If the plants die we wouldn’t have any food and less oxygen will be produced. I don’t know about you but food and oxygen are pretty important to me when it comes to surviving on this planet. So in a nut shell the water cycle is pretty dang important because it supplies us and our plants with all the fresh water we ever wanted. Maybe next time you drink a cup of water, thank the Earth for going through all that trouble for getting that cup of water all the way from the salty oceans to your lazy butt.
– Keaton Mason
Plants get their phosphorus from absorbing it through the soil. This comes from the weathering of the largest reservoir for phosphorus, sedimentary rock! Eventually the phosphorus moves from the plants to the animals through consumption and, eventually, these animals will die and the phosphorus then returns to the earth through decomposition.
Something like that.
The Nutrient Cycle is the cycle that is essential for organisms to live, grow, and reproduce. There are 9 macronutrients these are a major building block of the complex organic compounds found all in living organisms. Large amounts of macronutrients are required to make proteins, fats, and carbohydrates etc. All these nutrients are are in a closed system on Earth so that no nutrients enter or leave in biosphere. Because no nutrients can enter or leave these nutrients are all recycled which involves interactions between living organisms and physical environment also referred to as biogeochemical cycle.
The Energy Cycle is more like a scale balancing out that enters the earth, or which is similar to a scale. The amount energy that enters should equal the amount that’s removed from the system. If the energy to have more of the amount it suppose to have and then releasing it, the earth well become warmer. If it gains less and release more the climate well become colder. Most of earths energy is from solar energy which is 99.985 %.
The energy is absorbed by Dust and molecules, clouds, photosynthesis, earth. Well some are reflected by the scatter, clouds and ground. Which is how the energy cycle is balance out the right temperature.
Energy cannot be recycled but changed throughout the cycle,
Energy also can’t be created or destroyed but only change one form to another
Nutrient Cycle
Living things need energy and variable amounts of different nutrients to live, grow, reproduce, and function. Carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur are the essential nine macronutrients in complex organic compounds found in living organisms. Some organisms require trace amounts of micronutrients like boron, copper, iron, zinc, chlorine, manganese, and molybdenum. These nutrients are within a closed system on Earth. Only limited amounts of the nutrients are available to living organisms. Carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus are constantly being recycled and reused by organisms.
Thanks everyone for your summaries so far! Please read over other students’ summaries and be familiar with each of the cycles.
The carbon cycle is a Biogeochemical cycle. This cycle involves the element Carbon (C). Carbon is known as the building block of life. Carbon can be seen as a solid (Coal) or as a gas (CO2, this is how carbon enters the atmosphere). CO2 enters the atmosphere in many different forms.. for example when a volcano erupts it releases CO2 into the air.Carbon can also be removed from the atmosphere.. For example Plants. Plants remove CO2 from the atmosphere during photosynthesis and creates it into Sugar. The same goes for Phytoplankton, during its photosynthesis they take CO2 and turn it into oxygen. Some parts of the carbon cycle take longer then others, the formation of fossil fuels for example take longer then and organism dying and decaying.