A biogeochemical cycle describes the transfers of materials between an interconnected series of reservoirs, in and on the earth, and from scales ranging from the planet as a whole, to smaller units such as the soil. The soil itself is a critical component of all higher scale biogeochemical cycles, not only in the obvious case on land, but also as an important stage in the sedimentary cycle, to the marine environment.
The context
The idea of cyclical processes pre‐dates science, and is found in Hindu, Buddhist and other ancient cosmogonies. In addition, the circle was considered to be an ideal form by Plato and a cyclic view of history appears in Book 8 of the Republic. During the Renaissance, the notion of cyclical history was developed by Vico, though in the history of science, the significant development was the Copernican model for the Solar System, which was confirmed and modified by Galileo and Keppler, and triumphantly explained by the celestial mechanics of Isaac Newton in the...
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Bache, B., Chesworth, W. (2008). Biogeochemical Cycles. In: Chesworth, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Soil Science. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-3995-9_61
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