GGR227H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Temperate Forest, Dey, Royal Society Of Medicine
Document Summary
The main reservoir for phosphorus are rocks in the earth"s crust, and it is released by geological uplift over time: also animal wastes and decomposition, human interference with the phosphorus cycle, mining rock that is rich in p, removing biomass, concentrating organisms that produce a lot of p (pigs, cows produce lots of phosphorus in their feces, and by concentrating them in feedlots and farms, we raise the amount of phosphorus runoff, which leads to eutrophication, removing p from oceanic ecosystems by overfishing. Interactions occur between cycles: movement into the atmosphere is fast (photochemical reactions and phytoplankton) and is therefore available in shorter term in the atmosphere than phosphorus, human intervention in the sulphur cycle, burning of sulphur rich coal, melting of metal ores that contain sulphur, release sulphur into the air and atmosphere, 99% of sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere is from these 2 activities, combine with water in the atmosphere, fall back as acid rain (sulphuric acid)
