{ "model": { "rank": 8554, "code": "thing-q846303", "model_id": "vr.tr.biogeochemical-cycle", "name": "biogeochemical cycle", "purpose": "Let an agent explain biogeochemical cycles and their components, describe human impacts with sourced data, and support education and environmental analysis.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Activities and processes", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "ACT", "domain": "ACT.PRC", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q846303/", "tier": 2, "score": 50, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "chemical cycling", "mercury cycle", "silica cycle", "nutrient cycle" ], "aliasCount": 4, "merged": 4, "knownIn": 50, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q846303", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q846303", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T19:45:31Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q846303", "registryId": "vr.tr.biogeochemical-cycle", "name": "biogeochemical cycle", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "ACT.PRC" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q846303/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.biogeochemical-cycle", "name": "biogeochemical cycle", "purpose": "Let an agent explain biogeochemical cycles and their components, describe human impacts with sourced data, and support education and environmental analysis.", "definition": "The pathway by which a chemical element or compound moves through the biotic and abiotic compartments of Earth, such as the carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, water, silica and mercury cycles, driven by biological, geological and chemical processes; biogeochemical cycles sustain ecosystems and are perturbed by human activity.", "what_it_is_for": "Ecology, earth science and environmental management.", "affordances": [ "explain a specific cycle and its reservoirs", "quantify fluxes and residence times with sources", "describe human perturbations", "support teaching and modelling" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Element or compound pathway", "Biotic and abiotic compartments", "Cyclic", "Human-perturbed" ], "appearance": "Not physical; diagrams of reservoirs and fluxes.", "visual_identification": [ "Reservoirs and fluxes", "Biological and geological steps", "A food web tracks energy and organisms, not elements" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "carbon cycle", "nitrogen and phosphorus cycles", "water cycle", "sulfur, silica and other element cycles", "mercury and pollutant cycles" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "geochemical cycle", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "cyclic process", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "involves", "target": "nitrogen fixation", "why": "a step" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "algae", "why": "primary producers" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "IPCC and Global Carbon Project assessments", "Environmental regulations on nutrients and pollutants" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Oversimplified diagrams", "Misreporting fluxes and uncertainties", "Ignoring human perturbations" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "cycle", "name": "Cycle", "description": "A specific cycle.", "rationale": "Reservoirs and fluxes.", "layers": [ { "id": "components", "name": "Components", "description": "Reservoirs and fluxes.", "findings": [ { "id": "components-finding", "name": "Components", "description": "Components.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the main reservoirs, fluxes and processes of this cycle?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "What are residence times in each reservoir?", "kind": "measurement" } ] } ] }, { "id": "processes", "name": "Processes", "description": "Key processes.", "findings": [ { "id": "processes-finding", "name": "Processes", "description": "Processes.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which biological, geological and chemical processes drive the cycle?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which organisms are key?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "human", "name": "Human", "description": "Perturbations.", "rationale": "Sourced data.", "layers": [ { "id": "impacts", "name": "Impacts", "description": "Human changes.", "findings": [ { "id": "impacts-finding", "name": "Impacts", "description": "Impacts.", "questions": [ { "text": "How has human activity altered this cycle, according to scientific assessments?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What are the consequences?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "policy", "name": "Policy", "description": "Management.", "findings": [ { "id": "policy-finding", "name": "Policy", "description": "Management.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which policies address nutrient pollution, carbon emissions or mercury?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Are policy positions attributed neutrally?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "measure", "name": "Measure", "description": "Quantifying cycles.", "rationale": "Data and models.", "layers": [ { "id": "data", "name": "Data", "description": "Flux data.", "findings": [ { "id": "data-finding", "name": "Data", "description": "Data.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which datasets and assessments quantify this cycle?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How uncertain are the estimates?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "models", "name": "Models", "description": "Modelling.", "findings": [ { "id": "models-finding", "name": "Models", "description": "Modelling.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are biogeochemical cycles modelled?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which models are used in climate projections?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "teach", "name": "Teach", "description": "Education.", "rationale": "Cycles connect systems.", "layers": [ { "id": "classroom", "name": "Classroom", "description": "Teaching cycles.", "findings": [ { "id": "classroom-finding", "name": "Classroom", "description": "Teaching.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can this cycle be taught with diagrams and activities?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which misconceptions arise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "local", "name": "Local", "description": "Local examples.", "findings": [ { "id": "local-finding", "name": "Local", "description": "Local examples.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does this cycle play out in a local ecosystem or catchment?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which monitoring data exist locally?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each cycle be a separate entry?", "How should flux data be linked?", "How should policy debates be attributed?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a biogeochemical cycle, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain biogeochemical cycles and their components, describe human impacts with sourced data, and support education and environmental analysis.", "characteristics": { "substance": "activity", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: chemical cycling, mercury cycle, silica cycle, nutrient cycle.", "4 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 50 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a biogeochemical cycle, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "something that happens over time", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "chemical cycling", "mercury cycle", "silica cycle", "nutrient cycle" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 50 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 4 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one biogeochemical cycle from another, and a biogeochemical cycle from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a biogeochemical cycle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a biogeochemical cycle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a biogeochemical cycle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a biogeochemical cycle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a biogeochemical cycle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a biogeochemical cycle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a biogeochemical cycle sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a biogeochemical cycle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a biogeochemical cycle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a biogeochemical cycle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a biogeochemical cycle from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a biogeochemical cycle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a biogeochemical cycle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a biogeochemical cycle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a biogeochemical cycle passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a biogeochemical cycle between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a biogeochemical cycle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a biogeochemical cycle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a biogeochemical cycle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a biogeochemical cycle, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a biogeochemical cycle is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a biogeochemical cycle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a biogeochemical cycle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a biogeochemical cycle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "process-and-outcome", "name": "Process, inputs and outcome", "description": "How a biogeochemical cycle proceeds, what it needs and what it leaves behind.", "rationale": "An activity is known by its steps and its results, and both have to be recordable while it is still running.", "layers": [ { "id": "steps-and-sequence", "name": "Steps and sequence", "description": "The steps of a biogeochemical cycle, their order and what may run in parallel.", "findings": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions", "name": "Steps, preconditions and completion", "description": "What has to be true before each step of a biogeochemical cycle and what marks it done.", "questions": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a step of a biogeochemical cycle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a step of a biogeochemical cycle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a step of a biogeochemical cycle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-results", "name": "Inputs, resources and results", "description": "What a biogeochemical cycle consumes and what it produces.", "findings": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs", "name": "Inputs, outputs and side effects", "description": "The resources a biogeochemical cycle takes and the results it leaves, wanted or not.", "questions": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the inputs and results of a biogeochemical cycle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the inputs and results of a biogeochemical cycle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the inputs and results of a biogeochemical cycle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What biogeochemical cycle is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of biogeochemical cycle are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is biogeochemical cycle operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of biogeochemical cycle and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of biogeochemical cycle?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as biogeochemical cycle?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a biogeochemical cycle came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a biogeochemical cycle and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a biogeochemical cycle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a biogeochemical cycle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a biogeochemical cycle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a biogeochemical cycle is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a biogeochemical cycle, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a biogeochemical cycle, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a biogeochemical cycle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }