3-6 Matter Cycles within Ecosystems and in the Biospere

The elements and compounds that make up nutrients move continually through air,water,soil,rock and living organisms in cycles called biogeochemical cycles(literally,life-earth-chemical cycles) or nutrient cycles-prime examples of one of the four scientific principles of sustainability (see back cover). These cycles, driven directly or indirectly by incoming solar energy and gravity, include the hydrologic (water), carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles. Thus, matter cycles within ecosystems and the biosphere and human activities are altering these chemical cycles.
元素和化合物間接透過太陽能和重力進行各種養份循環，因此生態系中的生物圈和人類活動也會改變這些的化學週期。
As nutrients move through the biogeochemical cycles, they may accumulate in one portion of the cycle and remain there for different lengths of time. These temporary storage sites such as the atmosphere, the oceans and other waters, and underground deposits are called reservoirs.
營養物移動通過生物地球化學循環，他們可以聚集在一個週期的一部分。這些臨時地點可能是大氣，海洋和其他水域和地下水稱之為水庫。
Nutrient cycles connect past, present, and future forms of life. Some of the carbon atoms in your skin may once have been part of a leaf, a dinosaur's skin,or a layer of limestone rock. Your grandmother, Attila the Hun, or a hunter-gatherer who lived 25,000 years ago may have inhaled some of the oxygen molecules you just inhaled.
養分循環連接過去，現在和未來的生命形式。