The Ocean Phosphorus Cycle

Delaney, M.L. (1998) Phosphorus accumulation in marine sediments and the oceanic phosphorus cycle. Global Biogeochem. Cycles 12, 563-572. 

Filippelli G. M. and Delaney M. L. (1994) The oceanic phosphorus cycle and continental weathering during the Neogene. Paleoceanography 9(5), 643 -652. 

Atmospheric Input of Pollutants. Nitrogen Isotopes in the Ocean. Phosphorus Cycle. 

Unlike other biogeochemical elements, phosphorus does not have a significant atmospheric reservoir. Thus, while some amount of phosphorus is occasionally dissolved in rain, this does not represent an important link in the phosphorus cycle. River runoff is the primary means of transport between the land surface and oceans, and unlike the other elements discussed. 

Human activity has an enormous influence on the global cycling of nutrients, especially on the movement of nutrients to estuaries and other coastal waters. For phosphorus, global fluxes are dominated by the essentially one way flow of phosphorus carried in eroded materials and wastewater from the land to the oceans, where it is ultimately buried in ocean sediments. The size of this flux is currently estimated at 22 x 106 tons per year. Prior to increased human agricultural and industrial activity,... 

For phosphorus,/x g = 0.01 x 0.95 = 0.01. This means that only 1 percent of the phosphorus introduced into the ocean by river runoff is removed to the sediments during each mixing cycle. 

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