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In Earth science, a biogeochemical cycle or substance turnover or cycling of

substances is a pathway by which a chemical substance moves through both biotic
(biosphere) and abiotic (lithosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere) components of
Earth.
Eutrophication the process by which a body of water becomes enriched in
dissolved nutrients (such as phosphates) that stimulate the growth of aquatic plant
life usually resulting in the depletion of dissolved oxygen

Interesting Facts/Trivia about Phosphorus

Phosphorus, the 15th element on the periodic table, was first discovered by a
German alchemist named Hennig Brand by accident in 1669 while distilling at
least 60 buckets of urine in search of a compound that would turn ordinary
metals into gold. Nowadays, phosphorus is mostly isolated from the rock
phosphate commercially known as apatite.
(Urine and urine naturally contains considerable quantities of dissolved
phosphates. Hennig became the first person in history to discover an
element. (Of course, other elements such as gold and silver were already
known but they had no named discoverer. He kept his process a secret,
choosing instead to sell the process to other alchemists. His process became
more widely known when it was sold to the French Academy of Sciences.)
Phosphorus got its name from the Greek word "phosphoros" meaning "bringer
of light" because the element glowed in the dark.
Phosphorus is the eleventh most abundant element in the Earth's crust.
Phosphorus is also found in the human body. It is the sixth most abundant
element in the human body.
Meteorites may have brought phosphorus to Earth, according to a 2013 study
in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. By 3.5 billion
years ago, the element was abundant on the planet, the study found.

Phosphorus is most commonly found in rock formations and ocean sediments as phosphate salts.
Phosphate salts that are released from rocks through weathering usually dissolve in soil water and
will be absorbed by plants. Because the quantities of phosphorus in soil are generally small, it is
often the limiting factor for plant growth. That is why humans often apply phosphate fertilizers on
farmland. Phosphates are also limiting factors for plant-growth in marine ecosystems, because they
are not very water-soluble. Animals absorb phosphates by eating plants or plant-eating animals.
Huge quantities of sulfuric acid are used in the conversion of the phosphate rock into a fertilizer
product called "super phosphate

Cycle:
The phosphorus enters the soil and water through the weathering of rocks.
Plants take in these phosphorus ions from the soil.
The phosphates are then transferred from plants to herbivores animals.
These herbivores animals are eaten by carnivores.
The phosphates that are absorbed by the animals are returned to the soil
through excretion and from decomposition of plants and dead material by
microbes.
The dead plant materials and other waste products are decayed through the
action of bacteria.
The phosphate is released out to the environment by this process.
The phosphate in the soil is leached out or eroded into water.
The water is again utilized by algae and plants as nutrients.

Over time, rain and weathering cause rocks to release phosphate ions and other
minerals. This inorganic phosphate is then distributed in soils and water.
Plants take up inorganic phosphate from the soil. The plants may then be consumed
by animals. Once in the plant or animal, the phosphate is incorporated into organic
molecules such as DNA. When the plant or animal dies, it decays, and the organic
phosphate is returned to the soil.
Within the soil, organic forms of phosphate can be made available to plants by
bacteria that break down organic matter to inorganic forms of phosphorus. This
process is known as mineralisation.
Phosphorus in soil can end up in waterways and eventually oceans. Once there, it
can be incorporated into sediments over time.

Most phosphorus is unavailable to plants

Since most of our phosphorus is locked up in sediments and rocks, its not available for
plants to use. A lot of the phosphorus in soils is also unavailable to plants.

Soil phosphorus becomes available to plants through several routes:

Bacteria: Bacteria convert plant-available phosphate into organic forms that are
then not available to plants. Although other bacteria make phosphate available by
mineralisation, the contribution of this is small.

Adsorption: Inorganic (and available) phosphorus can be chemically bound

(adsorbed) to soil particles, making it unavailable to plants. Desorption is the release
of adsorbed phosphorus from its bound state into soil solution.

pH: Inorganic phosphorus compounds need to be soluble to be taken up by plants.

This depends on the acidity (pH) of the soil. If soils are less than pH 4 or greater
than pH 8, the phosphorus starts to become tied up with other compounds, making it
less available to plants.

Many plant crops need more phosphorus than is dissolved in the soil to grow optimally. In
addition, crops are usually harvested and removed leaving no decaying vegetation to
replace phosphorus. Therefore, farmers replenish the phosphorus pool by adding fertilisers
or effluent to replace the phosphorus taken up by plants.

Phosphate fertilisers replenish soil phosphorus

Many farmers replenish phosphorus through the use of phosphate fertilisers. The
phosphorus is obtained by mining deposits of rock phosphate. Locally produced sulfuric acid
is used to convert the insoluble rock phosphate into a more soluble and usable form a
fertiliser product called superphosphate.

In New Zealand, superphosphate is made using rock imported mainly from Morocco.

Adjusting the pH of the soil for efficient plant uptake of phosphate should be done prior
tofertilisation. For example, adding lime reduces soil acidity, which provides an environment
where phosphate becomes more available to plants.

Water pollution by fertilisers

When fields are overfertilised (through commercial fertilisers or manure), phosphate not
utilised by plants can be lost from the soil through leaching and water run-off. This
phosphate ends up in waterways, lakes and estuaries. Excess phosphate causes excessive
growth of plants in waterways, lakes and estuaries leading to eutrophication.

Steps are being taken in agriculture to reduce phosphate losses in order to maximise the
efficiency of fertiliser and effluent applications.