Standard 6d Preknowledge
6d) Students know how water, carbon, and nitrogen cycle between abiotic resources and organic matter in the ecosystem and how oxygen cycles through photosynthesis and respiration.
CALIFORNIA FRAMEWORKS SUMMARY:
Living things depend on nonliving things for life. At the organism level living things depend on natural resources, and at the molecular level, they depend on chemical cycles. Water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other elements are recycled back and forth between organisms and their environments. Water, carbon, and nitrogen are necessary for life to exist. These chemicals are incorporated into plants (producers) by photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation and used by animals (consumers) for food and protein synthesis. Chemical recycling occurs through respiration, the excretion of waste products and, of course, the death of organisms.