Phosphorus Cycle

Phosphorus Cycle

Humans affect the cycle

Phosphate Mine

Humans mine phosphorus for fertilizers and detergent. This can be picked up by rain and carried to other places cause problems. For example, algae can grow rapidly in ponds if fertilizer gets in causing fish to suffocate. If there is too much phosphorus from humans, phosphorus will be taken out of the Earth faster than it is put back in, so it is off balance.

photo by: Mark Evans, flickr.com

Animals eat the plants

Animals

Animals eat the plants that contain phosphorus for use in lipids, cell development, DNA, and RNA.

Photo by: Kenny Teo, flickr.com

Decomposers

Decomposer

Decomposers break down dead plants and animals, putting the phosphorus back into the soil forming a mini cycle.

Photo by: Chris Ring, flickr.com

Producers use the Phosphorus

Plants take in phosphorus through their roots

Seaweed

Producers such as phytoplankton, seaweed, and kelp use the phosphorus from the water.

Photo by: Marceo Santos, flickr.com

Plants

Once in the soil, plants take the phosphorus in through their roots. They then use it in nucleic acids.

Photo by: Ovidiu Tache, flickr.com

Phosphorus is found in minerals

Phosphate Rock

When tectonic plates shift, phosphorus is exposed to the surface. The phosphorus in the minerals can then be used in different ways. The phosphorus is solid.

Photo by: Winam, flickr.com

Phosphorus in the soil

Phosphorus in Water

Phosphorus can also end up dissolved in the water through weathering and erosion when it is carried through a river or stream. Upwelling causes the phosphorus to circulate through the water.

Soil

Weathering and erosion make phosphorus available in the soil.

Photo by: Markus Stöber, flickr.com

Consumers eat the Producers

Phosphorus in the soil goes to water

Fish

Runoff

Phosphorus in the soil can be picked up by water and moved into larger bodies of water.

Photo by: Skip Moore, flickr.com

Consumers in the water then eat the producers getting the phosphorus through the food chain.

Photo by: Duane Schermerhorn, flickr.com

Decomposers

Crab

Decomposers break down dead organisms and return the phosphorus to the water.

Photo by: Larry Gridley, flickr.com

the phosphorus returns to rocks

Phosphorus sinks to the bottom

Over time, the ocean floor becomes rocks restarting the cycle.

Some phosphorus in the water sinks to the bottom.

Works Cited

"The Phosphorus Cycle." Science Learning, Science Learning Hub, 30 July 2013, www.sciencelearn.org. Accessed 11 Dec. 2016.

http://sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/Soil-Farming-and-Science/Science-Ideas-and-Concepts/The-phosphorus-cycle