Nutrient cycles are changing and being affected everyday, due to both natural and human caused reasons. When a natural disaster happens, it affects all the cycles, their reservoirs, processes, and other organisms that use those cycles.
Nutrient Cycles
After any earthquake, the nutrient cycles of nitrogen, carbon, water, and phosphorus will be affected. These cycles are the processes of life, and each of these nutrients are needed for any organism to function properly.The 2010 Haiti Hurricane affected all these cycles, and now these cycles will affect the productivity in the area in the future.
Nitrogen - The nitrogen cycle controls and moves around the nitrogen in an area. Nitrogen can be found mostly in the atmosphere, then the soil, plants, animals, and water. This cycle will be altered because of the earthquake since it destroyed many of the plants in the country, as well as killed off many animals, so they will not be able to transfer nitrogen between them anymore. Although the dead animals will decompose and the nitrogen in them will transfer into the soil, plants will not be able to absorb it in. Because of this, there will be a surplus of nitrogen in the soil but not enough in the living processes. Nitrogen bacteria will fix the nutrient so that it will be in the water, but the nutrient that plants are supposed to use to put it back into the air will not happen since there are not any plants left to do this, especially since Haiti has been prone to deforestation.
Carbon - Carbon is released from organism's lungs into the atmosphere, which from plants take in to produce oxygen. Although Haiti is not one of the country's in the world to produce an excess amount of carbon, the earthquake has caused the amount of carbon dioxide that stays in the atmosphere to rise. The earthquake destroyed the little amount of plants left in Haiti, so now they will not be able to absorb any carbon in. Because of this, oxygen levels will also be affected since the plants will not be producing any oxygen through the photosynthesis process. Also, since there are no plants then animals wont be able to eat the plants to get carbon, even though the amount of animals left has decreased immensely. When the animals die, the amount of carbon in them will be absorbed into the soil, but this will still be a lessened amount since they did not eat any plants to get the carbon. This means that since there is an excess amount of carbon in the atmosphere, it will cycle through the water, but the carbon in the soil has no way to transfer through.
Water - The water cycle is the most prone cycle out of all the nutrient cycles that gets affected majorly everyday. The 2010 Haiti Hurricane caused tsunami's to occur, which caused flooding and a rise in ground water. Although this happened, many plants died therefore they couldn't absorb the water. Since the water was polluted, organisms such as humans were not allowed to use the water either. This made it so that the water mostly got absorbed into the air, and the country dried out. No plants, ground soil, or organisms were holding the water in so the water got transferred into other places., and this left Haiti in a desperate need for water.
Phosphorus - The nutrient phosphorus was found mostly in the plants and living things, but since they died this caused them to decompose. When decomposed, phosphorus was transferred into soil and water. Since there were no more plants to absorb the phosphorus back in, the few animals left couldn't receive any either because when they ate, there was not much in the plants to begin with. This means that there was a surplus of phosphorus in the soil and water, but no way to get it back into living things, therefore there was not enough in the organisms even though they needed it.
Nitrogen - The nitrogen cycle controls and moves around the nitrogen in an area. Nitrogen can be found mostly in the atmosphere, then the soil, plants, animals, and water. This cycle will be altered because of the earthquake since it destroyed many of the plants in the country, as well as killed off many animals, so they will not be able to transfer nitrogen between them anymore. Although the dead animals will decompose and the nitrogen in them will transfer into the soil, plants will not be able to absorb it in. Because of this, there will be a surplus of nitrogen in the soil but not enough in the living processes. Nitrogen bacteria will fix the nutrient so that it will be in the water, but the nutrient that plants are supposed to use to put it back into the air will not happen since there are not any plants left to do this, especially since Haiti has been prone to deforestation.
Carbon - Carbon is released from organism's lungs into the atmosphere, which from plants take in to produce oxygen. Although Haiti is not one of the country's in the world to produce an excess amount of carbon, the earthquake has caused the amount of carbon dioxide that stays in the atmosphere to rise. The earthquake destroyed the little amount of plants left in Haiti, so now they will not be able to absorb any carbon in. Because of this, oxygen levels will also be affected since the plants will not be producing any oxygen through the photosynthesis process. Also, since there are no plants then animals wont be able to eat the plants to get carbon, even though the amount of animals left has decreased immensely. When the animals die, the amount of carbon in them will be absorbed into the soil, but this will still be a lessened amount since they did not eat any plants to get the carbon. This means that since there is an excess amount of carbon in the atmosphere, it will cycle through the water, but the carbon in the soil has no way to transfer through.
Water - The water cycle is the most prone cycle out of all the nutrient cycles that gets affected majorly everyday. The 2010 Haiti Hurricane caused tsunami's to occur, which caused flooding and a rise in ground water. Although this happened, many plants died therefore they couldn't absorb the water. Since the water was polluted, organisms such as humans were not allowed to use the water either. This made it so that the water mostly got absorbed into the air, and the country dried out. No plants, ground soil, or organisms were holding the water in so the water got transferred into other places., and this left Haiti in a desperate need for water.
Phosphorus - The nutrient phosphorus was found mostly in the plants and living things, but since they died this caused them to decompose. When decomposed, phosphorus was transferred into soil and water. Since there were no more plants to absorb the phosphorus back in, the few animals left couldn't receive any either because when they ate, there was not much in the plants to begin with. This means that there was a surplus of phosphorus in the soil and water, but no way to get it back into living things, therefore there was not enough in the organisms even though they needed it.