Phosphorus Cycle

The central theme of this course is resource sustainability. The meaning of resource is anything from the environment that meets our needs and wants. Meanwhile sustainability is the ability of the earth’s natural systems, cultural systems, and economic systems to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely in the face of exponential population growth. In class we studied five ecosystems that were vital to resource sustainability and the continuance of life on planet earth. These five cycles we studied were: the water cycles, the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle, the phosphorus/ rock cycles, and the sulfur cycle.
First I will describe how the water (hydrologic) cycle contributed to resource sustainability and to continue …show more content…
The phosphorus cycle is the biogeochemical cycle that describes the movement of phosphorus through the hydrosphere, biosphere, and the lithosphere. The phosphorus cycle is vital to life and mas multiple roles. The most important role of phosphorus is that it is the key component of DNA and RNA. Phosphorus is important for producing ATP. plants absorb phosphorus from the environment and then proceeds to convert it from inorganic phosphorus to organic phosphorus. The organic phosphorus is discharged and converted back into organic phosphorus through decomposition. Seasonal patterns in the aquatic ecosystem effects phosphorus levels. During the spring, inorganic phosphorus is discharged from the sediment by convection currents (the transfer of heat by the mass movement of heated particles to an area of cooler fluid) in the warming water. Plants and algae tend to reproduce more when phosphorus levels are high. In this case much of the phosphorus is then converted to organic phosphorus, with the declining of primary productivity. In the summer, the algae and plants die off, and they decompose because of the bacteria, which causes inorganic phosphorus to be released back into the ecosystem. Then the cycle