Sulfur Cycle

First, what is sulfur? Sulfur is the 10th most abundant element in the environment. It is a bright yellow crystalline solid in its normal state, with most of it stored underground in rocks and minerals and in ocean floor deposits. Mostly, sulfur is used for fertilizers, gunpowder, matches, and in insecticides and fungicides. It is a part of vitamins, proteins and hormones that are considered critical to climate and health of various ecosystems.

In the sulfur cycle...

• The cycle begins with the weathering of rocks, which releases stored sulfur.
• Sulfur comes into contact with the air, converting it to sulfate (SO4).
• Sulfate is taken up by plants and microorganisms and is changed to organic form.
• Sulfur moves up the food chain.
• When organisms die, some of the sulfur is released back to sulfate and enter microorganisms.
• Natural sources emit sulfur into the air. 
• Sulfur eventually settles back to the Earth or comes through rainfall, with some also going to the ocean. 
• Sulfur is also drained to rivers and lakes, eventually to the oceans. 
• Some of the sulfur from oceans go back to the atmosphere through the sea spray. 
• Remaining sulfur go to ocean floor and form ferrous sulfide, which is responsible for the black color of most marine sediments.

*In this cycle it all goes back to the atmosphere where it all began, and the same cycle happens again.

Within the nature there are effect of sulfur cycle to it such that; sulfur is one of the processes that allows natural weathering and other natural processes. Sulfur Cycle does not allow acid rains because it regulates the amount of sulfur present in the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere. And sulfuric acids forms sulfuric acid smog when it mixes with water vapor.

Not only does the sulfur cycle have effect with nature, but it also has effects with the human progress. In the human activities since the start of the Industrial Revolution contributed to most of the sulfur that enters the atmosphere. One-third of all sulfur that reaches the atmosphere comes from human activities, such as from the economic wastes and industries. The emissions coming from human activities react to produce sulfate salts that creates acid rain.

Eco Footprint Analysis

Based on the excel file that we had to fill up for us to compute or calculate the energy consumed by our house/home/family. It depends on all the things we consume, the factors of how huge our house is and more.

To compute for your own footprint, download the file from the link below:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B68X0NLCeZQzVWl0eFBhd2R6SGc/edit?usp=sharing


If you have a big family, your household will probably consume a lot. just like mine. But in order to lessen the consumption, we must observe and just consume what is needed. We should lessen eating at fast food chains , we should also be observant of what food we take. We should avoid consumption of too much fossil fuels. We should also lessen our wastes, especially on food left overs, having pets will help reduce the waste, since they can eat the left overs. It is not just the food that we should be observant of, there are also those electrical consumption we have. we should use appliances that doesn't consume a lot of energy, also if the appliances are not in use, we have to unplug them to save energy consumption.

The lesser computed household footprint, the better. It just means that we have less consumption which is a good thing.