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The reservoir is in a steady state if Q = S, that is, if the sources balance the sinks and there is no change over time. [25] The residence or turnover time is the average time material spends resident in the reservoir. If the reservoir is in a steady state, this is the same as the time it takes to fill or drain the reservoir.
Most carbon leaves the terrestrial biosphere through respiration. When oxygen is present, aerobic respiration occurs, producing carbon dioxide. If oxygen is not present, e.g. as is the case in marshes or in animals' digestive tracts, anaerobic respiration can occur, which produces methane. About half of the gross primary production is respired ...
The reservoir contains the amount of material M under consideration, as defined by chemical, physical or biological properties. The source Q is the flux of material into the reservoir, and the sink S is the flux of material out of the reservoir. The budget is the check and balance of the sources and sinks affecting material turnover in a reservoir.
Carbon leaves the terrestrial biosphere in several ways and on different time scales. The combustion or respiration of organic carbon releases it rapidly into the atmosphere. It can also be exported into the ocean through rivers or remain sequestered in soils in the form of inert carbon. [ 23 ]
The residence time of a reservoir within the hydrologic cycle is the average time a water molecule will spend in that reservoir (see table). It is a measure of the average age of the water in that reservoir. Groundwater can spend over 10,000 years beneath Earth's surface before leaving. [17] Particularly old groundwater is called fossil water ...
Marine organisms link the carbon and oxygen cycles through processes such as photosynthesis. [1] The marine carbon cycle is also biologically tied to the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles by a near-constant stoichiometric ratio C:N:P of 106:16:1, also known as the Redfield Ketchum Richards (RKR) ratio , [ 3 ] which states that organisms tend to ...
Chlorine is cycled through the pedosphere via biotic and abiotic processes that lead to this reservoir acting as a sink. [ 1 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] The chlorine cycle (Cl) is the biogeochemical cycling of chlorine through the atmosphere , hydrosphere , biosphere , and lithosphere .
The phosphorus cycle is the biogeochemical cycle that involves the movement of phosphorus through the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere.Unlike many other biogeochemical cycles, the atmosphere does not play a significant role in the movement of phosphorus, because phosphorus and phosphorus-based materials do not enter the gaseous phase readily, [1] as the main source of gaseous phosphorus ...