Phosphorus cycle

The phosphorus cycle includes the following steps:

• Phosphorus in fertilizer, rocks, and mountains is distributed by rain to nearby land and bodies of water
• Animals eat the plants grown by fertilizer. They expel the phosphorus as waste. It eventually reaches the water as runoff.
• Phosphorus is cycled through animals that live in water. It is eventually deposited into the ocean floor.
• Phosphates contribute to the sediment at the bottom of the water. That sediment becomes rock
• The ocean bed eventually becomes a mountain range over several millions of years because of normal geological functions
• The phosphorus in those mountain ranges is washed off into bodies of water and the cycle begins again and again.

Diagram

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  The Phosphorus cycle

Phosphorus Cycle Media

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  Phosphorus cycle on land
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  The aquatic phosphorus cycle
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  Nitrogen and phosphorus cycles in a wetland
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  Phosphorus fertilizer application
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  Phosphorus in manure production

References

• Friedland, Andrew J., Rick Relyea, and David Courard-Hauri. "The Phosphorus Cycle." Environmental Science for AP*. New York: W.H. Freeman, 2012. N. pag. Print.