Question

What does the sulfur cycle involve?

Answer 1

Sulfur cycle:

1. It describes the movement of sulfur through the geosphere and biosphere.
2. Sulfur occurs in all living matter as a component of amino acids.
3. It is one of the main constituents of many proteins, vitamins, and hormones.
4. Here Sulfur is released from rocks through weathering and then assimilated by microbes and plants.
5. It is then passed up the food chain and assimilated by plants and animals, and released when they decompose.
6. The sulfur cycle is made up of 4 steps: mineralization, oxidation, reduction, and incorporation.
7. During decomposition, the sulfur-reducing bacteria reduce sulfate compounds to hydrogen sulfide.
8. The photosynthetic sulfur bacteria anaerobically grow oxidizing hydrogen sulfide thus releasing elemental sulfur.