How Does Humans Affect The Phosphorus Cycle?

Furthermore, factory farms pollute drinking water sources. Manure and fertilizers are rich in nitrates and phosphates, which are very unhealthy for living things. They pollute groundwater sources by seeping in through lagoons of waste sewage that factory farms create. Lagoons of animal feces and spent fertilizers are a very cheap way of dealing with waste (NRDC). The chemicals travel through the soil to groundwater that the local communities depend on. Ingesting nitrate tainted water will lower the amount of oxygen a person can intake. This can lead to death for infants. Some of the pollutants can reach open waters if they are carried by rain or irrigation water, called runoff. Runoff pollutes ponds, lakes, oceans, and other open bodies of water. Polluted waters with high levels of nitrates kill fish, aquatic plants, and other aquatic organisms because they experience the same problems with oxygen intake. High levels of phosphorus in our waters cause algae blooms in open bodies of water. Algae blooms disrupt the ecosystem in the water and kill the organisms living in the water. They use up all the oxygen in

The excess use of fertilizers can result in soil erosion and can lead to land pollution.

Human activities add nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which cause imbalances in the Everglade water chemistry, disrupting plant communities and altering wildlife

According to our biology book, “there are several elements (water, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus) that cycle through our world just like energy is cycled. These elements are never created or destroyed, but instead they are constantly recycled and reused.” Various human activities can hamper/benefit these cycles. Two of the cycles and how they are benefited and adversely affected by human activities are explained below.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), "High levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in our lakes, rivers, streams, and drinking water sources cause the degradation of these water bodies and harm fish, wildlife, and human health." In the 2000 National Water Quality Inventory, states reported that agricultural nonpoint source (NPS) pollution was the leading source of water quality impacts on surveyed rivers and lakes, as well as the second largest source of impairments to wetlands, and a major contributor to contamination of surveyed estuaries and groundwater. Agricultural activities that cause NPS pollution include poorly located or managed animal feeding operations; overgrazing; plowing too often or at the wrong time; and improper, excessive or poorly timed application of pesticides, irrigation water and fertilizer. Since the 1960s, the high input of agriculture production has resulted in the surplus of nitrogen and phosphorus in farm fields, which run off into surface waters. High concentrations of nitrates and phosphates in surface waters could lead to eutrophication and instability of the aquatic ecosystems. Eutrophication is caused by the over-enrichment of water with phosphates and nitrates, a problem that has become a widespread in rivers, lakes, estuaries, and coastal

Water column phosphorus concentrations have also been shown to increase under anoxic conditions (Webb, K.L. and D'Elia, C.F. 1980). This is because some of the iron oxyhydroxides that

Lessons Learned from Mistakes Made in the Past The Holocaust was a persecution movement during World War II located specifically in Germany. This was organized by what was referred to as the “German Nazi Party”, led by the dictator in which had taken over the government, Adolf Hitler. The consequences of the formation of a dictatorship effects how situations like this are prevented. Hitler’s actions, at the time, greatly affect how the ruling by dictatorship itself is prevented today.

To understand the problem, you first have to know where it comes from. Nitrogen and phosphorous are the two nutrients of concern. These non-point source pollutants are often the direct result of human activities.

Even though, fertilizers are needed to supply essential nutrients to the growth of plants; an excess of them is one of the major issues contributing to pollution in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Fertilizers are mainly composed of two elements: nitrogen and phosphorus.(4) Throughout the years, millions of pounds of this nutrients are applied all around the Chesapeake Bay Watershed; everything not absorbed by the soil or taken up by plants eventually reaches the Chesapeake Bay through storm-water runoff. This nutrients end up creating algae blooms in the water, which reduce the amount of sunlight available to underwater grasses; not allowing plants to photosynthesize and produce the food they need to survive. Algae then decomposes creating dead zones killing fish and other species since oxygen is needed for any organism to live. (5)

Human impact on the cycling matter in ecosystems can change a lot of things. Humans can either help or hurt things. The carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycles are the three cycles of matter in ecosystems. What are these cycles? How do humans effect each one of these individual cycles? What are some examples of humans effecting these cycles?

Phosphorous contained in these shallow ocean sediments can either flow through ocean food webs or can become incorporated into deep ocean sediments which will eventually be uplifted by plate tectonics and start the phosphorous cycle all over again. As previously mentioned, the phosphorus cycle has no atmospheric component. Since phosphorus has no stable atmospheric gas phase, unlike the case for other nutrients such as nitrogen and carbon, ecosystems have to depend primarily on aqueous transfer of this critical nutrient6. Similar to on land, phosphorous is a regulatory element for plant growth in aquatic systems. Dissolved marine phosphorous is a limiting element for biological productivity6, 7, 8 and is probably the most critical regulator of ocean productivity throughout geologic history6, 8. Following the nutrient profile in the world’s oceans, phosphorous concentrations are approach zero in surface waters while phosphate concentrations increase in deep water. The carrying of eroded soils by rivers delivers phosphorous to the oceans. This riverine phosphorous is usually in particulate forms and dissolved forms. Most particulate phosphorous is fixed within mineral lattice thus is unavailable to the active cycle. Consequently, most of the phosphorous weathered from Earth’s continental crust travels to the oceans remaining unaltered. However, the outcome of organic phosphorous

It is very well explained to a non-technical audience because it provides a concrete relation with the terminology with which the audience is familiar. It relates the number line neighborhood to the household neighborhoods. The nearby area surrounding a number is explained as the area shared with the households. The size of the number line neighborhood can vary is explained by the concept that we have land shared with neighboring countries is also considered as a neighborhood. The most important point is that even with the use of non-technical terminology the underlying meaning was intact, the truth was not bent or biased. It simply identifies the most abstract elements and tries to trim them

Not only is pollution the cause of the death of many organisms essential to ecological balance, but human drinking water has also been affected.

Even though this chemical is very helpful to farmers and is good for crop production. Over using chemical fertiliser can cause a lot of pollutions. For example water pollution occurs when the fertilisers are washed into rivers or sea. Besides, plants or crops do not absorb the fertiliser one hundred percent. They only absorbs a portion of the fertilisers leaving some remaining in the soil. When the fertiliser goes into the water, micro organism can grow like algae. This can cause eutrophication because the algae grows faster on the fertiliser washed into the sea. This can cause the algae to take up a lot of oxygen from the water. This can cause lack of oxygen in the water for the fish, suffocating the fish that lives in the area. The ecosystem will be disturbed due to the large numbers of death of

As the world develops and the human population grows there is more pollution being dumped into the oceans, causing major problems to marine life and ecosystems. Major causes of marine pollution involve non-point pollutants, marine garbage, toxic ocean pollutants and sewage disposal in oceans. From heavy metal poisoning including lead and mercury killing predators such as sharks and whales, to waste getting trapped in the digestive tracts of marine animals, this essay focuses on how human interference causes horrifying problems to the marine life, but also how to fix it. It will also explore the normal activities of people including farming and how this can cause an imbalance in an ecosystem. Everyday activities can cause massive nutrient