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Phosphorus Cycle. What is Phosphorus ?. I s an essential nutrient for plants and animals in the form of ions. Phosphorus is also a building block of certain parts of the human and animal body. What is Phosphorus Cycle ?.
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WhatisPhosphorus? • Is an essential nutrient for plants and animals in the form of ions. • Phosphorus is also a building block of certain parts of the human and animal body.
WhatisPhosphorusCycle? • The phosphorus cycle is the biogeochemical cycle that describes the movement of phosphorus through the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. • Low phosphorus availability slows down microbial growth
EcologicalFunction • Is an essential nutrient for plants and animals in the form of ions. Phosphorus is a limiting nutrient for aquatic organisms. • Eighty percent of the mined phosphorus is used to make fertilizers. • Enrichment of phosphate can lead to eutrophication of fresh and inshore marine waters.
BiologicalFunction • The primary biological importance of phosphates is as a component of nucleotides. • It also functions as buffering agent in maintaining acid base homeostasis in the human body.
Phosphates moves quickly through plants and animals. • Unlike other cycles of matter compounds, phosphorus cannot be found in air as a gas, it only occurs under highly reducing conditions as the gas phosphine PH3. • Phosphorus is typically the limiting nutrient found in streams, lakes and fresh water environments.
The small losses in a terrestrial system caused by leaching through the action of rain are balanced in the gains from weathering rocks. • Herbivores obtain phosphorus by eating plants, and carnivores by eating herbivores. • Phosphorus is released back to the soil when plants or animal matter decomposes and the cycle repeats.
PhosophaticMinerals • The availability of phosphorus in ecosystem is restricted by the rate of release of this element during weathering. • The release of phosphorus from apatite dissolution is a key control on ecosystem productivity • Plant and animal growth depends on the rate of their degradation to generate free phosphate
HumanInterference • Humans alter the cycle by: • Cutting the tropical rain forest • The use of agricultural fertilizers • The use of laundry detergents
