Nutrients. Meaning for a person.

All substances on the Earth circulate, called biochemical cycles. Usually two cycles are distinguished in the cycle of biogenic elements - geological (or large) and small (called still differently biotic), which is due to the constant circulation of substances between the soil, microorganisms, plant and animal life.

The big cycle is long, hundreds of thousands or millions of years. Rocks are destroyed and weathered over time. Then, carried by water streams, they settle on the bottom of the World Ocean. Part of them with sediments and organisms extracted by man from the sea return to land. In addition, geotectonic changes in the Earth's crust (such as raising the sea floor or lowering the continents) also return the matter to the land. After this, the cycle of biogenic elements is repeated again.

The biotic cycle or cycle of biogenic elements is a level of living nature. Water, carbon, nutrients of the soil take an active part in life processes as an organic matter for building plants and animals. When these organisms die, their products of vital activity with the help of simpler organisms - decomposers or reducing agents, decompose into inorganic compounds and elements. And again everything repeats: biogenic elements are used by plants as food - this is how the biochemical cycle, called the cycle of biogenic elements, occurs.

Biogenic elements - a set of chemical elements that make up living organisms and necessary for their normal life and the flow of chemical processes. It should be noted that the content in the biosphere of living matter is estimated at 100 billion tons. Changes that occur in the upper layers of the earth's crust affect living organisms, so their chemical composition is determined by the environment.

Chemistry of biogenic elements.

Almost all biogenic elements found in sea water and the earth's crust are found in the living organism. The whole oxygen of the atmosphere is biogenic.

In living organisms, oxygen plays an important role, as well as hydrogen, calcium, magnesium, carbon, sodium, iron. Of the elements, 70% is oxygen, 18% carbon, 10% hydrogen. In phosphorus, calcium, potassium, sulfur, nitrogen and carbon, there is less migration capacity than other elements that make up living organisms.

The ways in which they enter the living organism are diverse. But the chemistry of biogenic elements is such that there is a "biogenic migration of atoms" (biogeochemical theory) along the chain: soil and water, and then food and man - almost all elements participate in this process. From the external environment, they penetrate into the living organism to a greater or lesser extent and provide the necessary biological concentration of elements for normal processes of vital activity.

Biologically significant or biogenic elements are divided into macroelements and microelements. The content of the first in living organisms is more than 0.01%, while the second - less than 0.001%.

The macroelements that make up the flesh of living organisms come from the outside into the human body; The recommended dose of their consumption is more than 200 mg. In the human body, as a rule, macronutrients come with food. Microelements, in spite of their so small number, are necessary for a living organism, since they take part in biochemical processes.

For good health it is necessary to maintain the constancy of the internal environment of the body with the qualitative and quantitative content of chemical substances at the physiological level. For this, the lifestyle should be healthy, and the food should be as varied and full as possible.