What is the Phosphorus Cycle?

 The phosphorus cycle, is the circulation of phosphorous among the rocks,

soils, water, and plants and animals of the earth.

 Human beings and all other organisms must have phosphorus to live. In
nature, most phosphorus occurs in phosphate rock, which contains
phosphate ions combined with calcium, magnesium, chlorine, and fluorine.
Uplifting of
rocks Phosphates
 It cannot be found in air in the gaseous . This is because phosphorous is in organic
Weathering of compounds
usually liquid at normal temperatures pressures. rock Phosphates
in rock Animals
Plants
Runoff
 This cycle is the slowest of the matter cycles.

Detritus
Phosphates in
Phosphates
 Phosphorus is most commonly found in rock formations and ocean in solution
soil
(inorganic)
sediments as phosphate salts.
Decomposition
Detritivores in
Rock Precipitated (solid)
soil
phosphates
 Phosphates are also limiting factors for plant-growth in marine ecosystems,
because they are not very water-soluble.
 The Process of the Phosphorous cycle

 The cycle basically starts out in the earth’s soil. The soil contains phosphate
and when something grows out of the soil it should have phosphate as well.

 When the plants grow they are consumed by herbivore and omnivore animals

 The animal’s waste or the animal’s body when it dies becomes detritus.

 Detritus is non-living organic material. When the detritus goes deep into the
soil, detritivores in the soil decompose and become the soil’s phosphate and
the cycle repeats.
 The Process of the Phosphorous cycle
 Another example of the phosphorus cycle is when rocks are created.

 The phosphate in the soil moves on and transfers its phosphate to the rocks underwater. When the uplifting
of the rocks occurs it takes the phosphate along with it. After that the weathering of rocks occur and the
rocks begin to break down into the soil and the phosphate in the rocks ends up in the soil again and the
cycle repeats.

 All these examples of phosphates are inorganic However, the Phosphorus Cycle is also organic.

 Not all phosphates in the runoff make it to the water; others sink into the soil. These inorganic phosphates
are transformed into organic ones by plants, which are in turn eaten by animals.

 The dead animals, retain their internal phosphorus stores and detritivores (scavengers which feed on dead
plants and animals or their waste) change the organic phosphates back to inorganic ones