The Phosphorous Cycle

What is different about the phosphorus cycle from the other cycles?

The phosphorous cycle does not have a gaseous state, therefore it is required that the consumers get phosphorous through the food that they eat.

What is Phosphorous a main constituent of?

Nucleic acids, phospholipids, and ATP

How is phosphorus the main constituent of nucleic acids?

It forms the sugar-phosphate backbone of DNA and RNA through phosphodiester bonds, which connect individual nucleotides

How is phosphorus the main constituent of phospholipids?

It forms the hydrophilic (water-attracting) "head" of a phospholipid molecule.

How is phosphorus the main constituent of ATP?

It is a central element in the three phosphate groups that give the molecule its name (adenosine triphosphate). The bonds connecting these phosphate groups store and release energy, making them the primary "power source" for almost all cellular activities. 

Why is phosphate the most important inorganic form of phosphorus?

It is readily bioavailable, charged, and hydrophilic, allowing it to be used in crucial biological processes like DNA and RNA formation, energy storage (ATP), and building strong bones and cell membranes.

What are the largest Phosphorus reservoirs?

Sedimentary rocks of marine origins, the soil, oceans, and organisms.

What does phosphate bind with?

Soil; movement is often localized

How do plants obtain phosphorus?

Plants take in the water from the soil which contains phosphate from the broken down rocks. It is “sucked” from the soil into the roots and used to create their proteins and nucleic acids.

How to animals obtain phosphorus?

Animals eat the plants that have absorbed the phosphorus.

What is the role of decomposers in the phosphorus cycle?

They break down those consumers and return them and the phosphorus they contain into the soil again.

What are the four main steps in the phosphorus cycle?

• Rock weathering (PO4-3)

• Consumption

• Plant uptake

• Decomposition

What is sedimentation in the phosphorus cycle?

The process of phosphorus-containing particles, such as eroded soil, organic matter, and dead biological material, settling out of the water column and accumulating on the bottom of a body of water, such as a lake or ocean

What does wind do in the phosphorous cycle?

It transports airborne particulate matter, such as mineral dust and organic matter, which contains phosphorus

What does geologic uplift do in the phosphorus cycle?

It brings phosphate-rich sedimentary rocks from the ocean floor to the land, completing the slow but vital phosphorus cycle by exposing these rocks to weathering

What does leaching do in the phosphorous cycle?

Dissolved phosphorus moves downward through the soil profile with percolating water, carrying it away from the topsoil and potentially to groundwater.