Phosphorus is a vital nutrient for that plants need to survive. It also is extremelly important to all living beings for it is used in ATP and adenosine triphosphate. Adenosine triphosphate is a process that helps with the storage and usage of energy. However that is not all it effects, it also is the main componet of DNA and RNA, which has to deal with the coding of genetics. Because phosphorus is needed throughout the environment, it is constantly recycled through the decomposition of plant and waste matter. When the plants are decaying, the phosphate in the plant matter is slowly released back into the environment ready for reuse. It also is dissolved in water, which is either used through water food chains, or is stored in the sediment, which, over time, will generate the phosphate that is found in the rock form apatite. Phosphorus originally is stored throughout rocks and deposits of sediment, which has been stored for millions of years. The main rock phosphate is stored in is called apatite, which is mined by humans to use in commercial synthetic fertilizers. The overuse of this fertilizer can cause run-off into bodies of water and an excess amount of phosphate in the water. Humans also effect the phosphorus cycle through the out flow of sewage plants that do not remove all of the phosphate out of the waste, which again causes an excessive amount of phosphate to enter the water. Overall, the phosphorus cycle is extremelly important knowledge to understand, so that we can change our inputs of phosphorus in the environment to a more reasonable amount.
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| Phosphate is eroded from apatite into the environment, which the plants absorb as a nutrient. When the plants die they release the phosphorus back into the environment. Phosphate is also dissolved in water which is either used in water food cycles, or becomes shallow water sediment. If the phosphate in the sediment remains unused it becomes deep sea sediment, which is then uplifted into the phosphate rock, apatite.
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