The Phosphorus Cycle

Phosphorus is one of the most important elements on Earth. It participates in or controls many of the biogeochemical processes occurring in the biosphere. To understand the interaction between P and other biogeochemical processes and elemental distributions, it is necessary to understand the distribution of P on the Earth s surface and the processes that control its distribution. The strategy of this chapter, therefore, is to (1) discuss the chemical forms in which P is present in the environment  

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One of the things that environmental scientists do IS to keep track of important elements in the biosphere—in what form do these ele ments normally occur to what are they transformed and how are they returned to their normal state Careful studies have given clear although compli cated pictures of the nitrogen cycle the sulfur cy cle and the phosphorus cycle for example The carbon cycle begins and ends with atmospheric carbon dioxide It can be represented in an abbrevi ated form as... 

Follmi, K. B. (1996). The phosphorus cycle, phospho-genesis and marine phosphate-rich deposits. Earth Sci. Rev. 40, 55-124. 

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. 

Graham, W. F. (1977). Atmospheric pathways of the phosphorus cycle. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Rhode Island. 

Janse JH, Aldenbeig T, Kramer PRG. 1992. A mathematical model of the phosphorus cycle in Lake Loosdrecht and simulation of additional measures. Hydrobiologia 233 119-136. 

The phosphorus cycle is the biogeochemical cycle that describes the movement of phosphorus through the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. Unlike many other biogeochemicals, the atmosphere does not play a significant role in the... 

Devai I, Felfoldy L, Wittner I, et al. 1988. Detection of phosphine New aspects of the phosphorus cycle in the hydrosphere. Nature 333 343-345. 

Jahnke, R.A. (2000) The phosphorus cycle. In Earth System Science—from Biogeo-chemical Cycles to Global Change (Jacobson, M.C., Charlson, R.J., Rodhe, H., and Orians, G.H., eds.), pp. 360-376, Academic Press, New York. 

Sundby, B., Gobeil, C., Silverburg, N., and Mucci, A. (1992) The phosphorus cycle in coastal marine sediments. Limnol. Oceanogr. 37, 1129-1145. 

The Atmosphere. - The Hydrosphere. - Chemical Oceanography. - Chemical Aspects of Soil. - The Oxygen Cycle. - The Sulfur Cycle. - The Phosphorus Cycle. - Metal Cycles and Biological Methyla-tion. - Natural Organohalogen Compounds. -Subject Index. 

In what way is the phosphorus cycle different from the carbon and nitrogen cycles you studied in the textbook ... 

The phosphorus cycle has both short-term and long-term parts. Use different colored pencils to show each part on the diagram. 

Elmsley, J. (1980). The phosphorus cycle. In The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry, Vol. 1, Part A. The Natural Environment and the Biogeochemical Cycles, ed. 

Cosgrove, D. J. (1977). Microbial transformations in the phosphorus cycle. Adv. Microb. Ecol. 1, 95-134. 

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