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.