Movement of Inorganic Matter

What is it? Inorganic matter is all the parts of the biosphere that are not living things nor products of living things. Inorganic matter includes water, gasses, salts, acids, bases, as well as inorganic forms of nutrients such as nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. Inorganic matter moves through the ecosystem when plants and animals decompose, and by disturbances such as fire and flood.

How is it studied? Inorganic matter is measured by taking air, soil, or water samples and analyzing their chemistry to find out which type and the amount of the chemicals that are present. Once these baseline levels are determined, manipulative experimentation can begin, such as adding excess nitrogen to a stream and examining the effects on the plant and animal life.

Inorganic Matter Research in LTER

Their hypothesis is that the amount and the movement of inorganic material in the stream determines the nature and the health of the plant and animal life that can inhabit the stream. The researchers are conducting the same exact experiment at all ten sites to see how quickly inorganic nitrogen is absorbed in the streams by plants and animals. Scientists then take samples of the plant and animal life to find out how nitrogen moves through the food web in different biomes.

	Scientists from the Coweeta LTER collect water samples to determine the amount of inorganic matter in a stream in North Carolina.
To study the movement and absorption of nitrogen in stream ecosystems, researchers release a measurable form of nitrogen from containers like the one shown in this picture. Then they measure the nitrogen concentration downstream, and take samples of plants and animals for nitrogen analysis.
	Human and livestock waste releases nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients in the ecosystem in amounts many times greater than normal. LTER scientists study the effects of these excess nutrients on the plants and animals.

This study is conducted at 10 stream sites across the U.S. Is there one near you?