Philosophy of Using the Cycle Approach to Describe Natural Systems on Earth

4 Philosophy of Using the Cycle Approach to Describe Natural Systems on Earth 

A basic goal of the cycle approach is to determine how the fluxes between the reservoirs depend on the content of the reservoirs and on other external factors. In many cases the details of the distribution of an element within each reservoir are disregarded, and for the most simplified calculations, the amounts of material in each reservoir are assumed to remain constant (i.e., there is a condition of steady state). This allows a chemical budget to be defined for the entire cycle. 

A steady-state, flux-based approach to describing the physical-chemical environment on Earth has advantages as well as disadvantages. Some advantages are that  

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