Submitted by:

Kumar Kashyap

M. Tech Marine Biotechnology

Ist Sem

Introduction to Marine Sciences

Phosphorus is essential for life processes in

plants and animals.

Phosphorus is a part of the molecule that

carries energy in living cells = ATP

Phosphorous also forms the phosphate-ester

backbone of DNA and RNA.

Phosphorous is also an important consituent

in various cell components such as

phosphoproteins and phospho-lipids in cell

membrane.

How do plants and animals use phosphorus?

Plants Animals (humans)

Developing healthy seeds, root

growth, and stem strength!

Developing healthy bones (works with Ca to build bone

tissue)

Corn with a Phosphorus deficiency

The presence of phosphorous in the

environment can impact primary production

in the oceans, species distribution and

ecosystem structure.

In some marine and estuarine environment,

phosphorous acts as a limiting factor for the

primary production.

So the availability of phosphorous in the

marine environment can strongly effect the

marine carbon cycle.

A phosphorus cycle may also be referred to

as mineral cycle.

organismatmosphere

The phosphorus cycle is the movement of

phosphorus from the environment to organisms

and then back to the environment.

Phosphorus is mainly found in water, soil, and

rock.

The phosphorus cycle is the SLOWEST cycle.

Eleventh most abundant element in the

Earth’s crust, comprising approximately 0.1%

by mass.

Occurs in both organic and inorganic forms.

The inorganic phosphate in minerals and

organic phosphate in rocks and soils.

Phosphorous is primarily delivered to the oceanvia continental weathering in dissolved orparticulate phase via riverine flux.

Much of the riverine particulate phosphorous isretained within continental shelves and hence isnot involved in the open ocean processes.

Atmospheric deposition through aerosols,volcanic ash and mineral dust is also importantparticularly to remote oceanic locations.

The dissolved phosphate is converted toparticulate form and then.

The dominant sink for oceanic P is depositionand burial in marine sediment in this particulateform.

A minor sink is the uptake through sea water.

In the open ocean the most of the

phosphorous remains in the dissolved form

(3*10^15) out of which maximum part is in

the deep ocean (2.9*10^15) and a small

portion (0.1*10^15) is in the surface waters.

Phosphate containing fertilizers and

phosphorous from other human activities are

washed into rivers, groundwater and

estuaries and adds a substantial amount of

anthropogenic phosphorous to the oceans.

1. Humans mine LARGE quantities of phosphate rock touse in commercial fertilizers and detergents.Phosphorous is NOT found as a gas, only as a solid inthe earth’s crust. It takes millions to hundreds ofmillions of years to replenish.

2. Phosphorous is held in the tissue of the trees andvegetation, not in the soil and as we deforest theland, we remove the ability for phosphorous toreplenish globally in ecosystems.

3. Cultural eutrophication – ad excess phosphate toaquatic ecosystems in runoff of animal wastes fromlivestock feedlots, runoff of commercial phosphatefertilizers from cropland, and discharge ofmunicipal sewage.

Paytan, A. and Mclaiughlin, K. The oceanic

phosphorous cycle. Chemical reviews (2007),

Volume 107 (2), 563-576.