This document summarizes several key biogeochemical cycles. It describes how carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus cycles move these elements through organisms and the biosphere. Microbes play an essential role in converting nutrients between organic and inorganic forms so they can be used by other organisms. The carbon cycle involves carbon dioxide being taken up by plants and released by respiration and volcanic activity. In the nitrogen cycle, nitrogen is fixed by bacteria, converted between nitrate and nitrogen gas by other bacteria, and used by plants and microbes to make amino acids.