Biogeochemical Cycle Quiz

What process in the water cycle involves water vapor cooling and changing into liquid droplets that will fall from the sky?

• Evaporation

• Precipitation

• Condensation

• Transpiration

Which part of the water cycle occurs when plants release water vapor into the air through their leaves?

• Infiltration

• Transpiration

• Runoff

• Sublimation

What is the term for water moving from the surface into the ground?

• Precipitation

• Percolation

• Runoff

• Evaporation

Which process in the carbon cycle removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores it in plants where it will be converted to glucose?

• Respiration

• Photosynthesis

• Decomposition

• Combustion

How does carbon cycle after it is stored in the bodies of dead organisms?

• Respiration

• Decomposition

• Photosynthesis

• Combustion

What human activity has contributed to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide?

• Photosynthesis

• Decomposition

• Combustion of fossil fuels

What is the process by which nitrogen gas from the atmosphere (the form that plants and animals can’t use) is converted to a form that certain plants (legumes) can use?

• Nitrification

• Denitrification

• Nitrogen Fixation

• Ammonification

In which process do decomposers break down dead organisms, returning nitrogen to the soil as ammonium?

• Denitrification

• Nitrification

• Ammonification

• Nitrogen Fixation

What is the process called when soil bacteria convert ammonium (NH4+) into nitrites (NO3-) that plants can use?

• Denitrification

• Nitrification

• Nitrogen Fixation

• Ammonification

How does nitrogen in the soil return to the atmosphere?

• Ammonification

• Nitrification

• Nitrogen Fixation

• Denitrification