Oxygen Cycle
Keshav Bhatia, Academic Content Writer at Edumarz
Oxygen is important for various biochemical processes and is important for the survival of most life on Earth.
Oxygen is found in the Earth’s crust also, where it occurs as oxide of most Metals and silicone.
It is also found in the crust in other forms such as Carbonates, sulphates, Nitrates and Minerals.
Carbohydrates, fats, proteins, DNA RNA(Nucleic acids) have oxygen molecules in them.
The atmosphere has 21% oxygen in it.
Some lifeforms do not need oxygen to be able to survive, these are called anaerobic organisms and oxygen can prove to be toxic for these organisms.
Prokaryotes such as bacteria are mostly anaerobic.
Nitrogen fixing bacteria cannot fix Nitrogen in the presence of oxygen, it can only fix nitrogen in the absence of oxygen.
Atmospheric oxygen used in three main processes:
Combustion
Respiration
Formation of Nitrogen oxides
One Major process that returns Oxygen to the atmosphere is Photosynthesis
