Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Boy, put biology, geology, and chemistry together, and you get biogeochemical! When you talk about the "circle of life," the circle to which you are referring is a biogeochemical cycle. The plants and animals that live and then die are the bio part; the earth that they decompose into comprises the geo part; and the process by which organic matter returns to the chemical elements in the earth is explained by the chemical part.