There are 4 main points to the Water Cycle - Evaperation - Condensation - Precipitation - Collection
Evaperation - The heat from the sun causes things like oceans, lakes, etc. to turn into a liquid into a gas (Evaporate). This is how clouds are formed; water vapor is collected in the sky.
Condensation - But when the clouds start to cool off, the clouds turn back to a liquid form - water.
Presipitation - The water falls from the sky in forms of rain, snow, hail, or sleet.
Collecton - This is when the oceans and lakes take back what they lost at the begining of the cycle, then the cycle starts over.
Plants take in carbon dioxide in return for the oxygen that we breath, in order for them to do this, there is a process.
Step 1. We breath, letting go of carbon dioxide as we exhale. Carbon dioxide is also put off during combustion (burning).
Step 2. Things like plants (organisms that make their own food) absorm the carbon dioxide to make carbohydrates in photosynthesis. Then they let go of the oxygen that we inhale.
Step 3. Animals eat the plants. Thus passing along the carbon in the food chain. The carbon that the animals consume is mostly carbon dioxide. But after a while, the animals and plants die.
Step 4. Decomposers in the ground will eventually eat the remains of the animal that consumed the plant. The carbon will be let off back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. The decomposed plants and animals could be turned into fossil fuels for future combustion.
Step 1. Over an amount of time, rain and weathering can cause rocks to release phosphate ions and other minerals. "This inorganic phosphate is then distributed in soils and water" (Source is under the button 'The Phosphorus Cycle').
Step 2. When the inorganic phosphate is in the soil, the plants then take in that inorganic phosphate. Eventually, an animal will consume the plant. Once in the plant or animal the inorganic phosphate is incorporated into organic molocules such as DNA. When the animal dies, the body decays and the organic phosphate is returned to the soil.
Step 3. Once in the soil, the organic phosphate cane be turned into inorganic phosphorus by the bacteria that break down organic matter.
Step 4. The phosphorus is the soil can end up in waterways and eventually in the ocean where it can be absorbed into sediments over time.
Fixaton-In this phase, bacteria changes nitrogen into ammonium. Thus making it usable by plants. Nitrification-This is the phase where bacteria changes ammonium into nitrates. Nitrates are what plants can absorb.
Assimilation-This is when the plants absorm the nitrates from the soil and into their roots. Once absorbed, the plants turn the nitrogen into amino acids, nucleic acids, and chlorophyll.
Ammonification-This is when the plant dies and decays. Decomposers like fungi and bacteria turn the nitrogen back into ammonium so the process can start over.
Denitrification-Extra nitrogen gets released back into the air.