Phosphorus Cycle

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Phosphorus Cycle

• -Sarah Veilleux, Haris Quershi, Teddy Sauyet

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Well start with the beginning

• It starts with the rocks, the sedimentary ones.
  They have the phosphorus, in a form called
  apatite, which also goes by its alter ego,
  Ca5(PO4)3OH.

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Note

• The sedimentary rocks merely add phosphorus to
  the cycle, they are not actually part of the
  cycle.

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Ignoring that

• The sedimentary rocks will then weather down from
  storms and such which move the apatite into the
  soil.

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Now for the fun part..

• The plants then use the phosphorus in their
  reproductive structures, such as DNA and RNA.

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So what if there is a lot of phosphorus?

• OVERGROWTH.
• Lets say it again.
• OVERGROWTH.
• Not just above the ground, their roots will also
  grow large! This is why many fertilizers today
  use phosphorus.

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Then animals, like us, eat the plants!

• And the phosphorus goes through the food chain,
  which we will not bother to reteach you. (Now if
  you do not know this, this would be a great time
  to raise your hand).

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The animals then produce scat.

• Which goes back into the cycle, starting with the
  soil!! Ta da!!
• (Censored because its impossible to find an
  appropriate picture googling scat

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However..

• Sometimes, due to run off, phosphorus enters
  areas of water!!! What happens now???

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Well, it's not that exciting...

• It just sort of goes through the marine food
  chain.

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BUT

• It might eventually settle to the bottom, where
  it becomes trapped in layers of sedimentary
  rock!!

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For 100 THOUSAND Years!!

• Or until it is brought back to the surface by
  geologic forces. Long long time.