ENVS195 Lecture 3: Matter Cycling Continued
15 Oct 2015
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Under natural conditions, movement rates b/w components achieve a balance over time. Human activities speed up transference between cycle components. Essential for life processes in plants and animals. Plants: developing healthy seeds, root growth, and stem strength. Animals (humans): developing healthy bones (works with ca to build bone tissue) Unlike carbon, phosphorus is not stored as a gas in the atmosphere - it is a sediment. Phosphorus is stored in rock and sediments on the ocean floors. Phosphorus is released from rock into the soil by a process called weathering Many pollution problems results from human-induced accumulation in one or more components of a cycle. Weathering = rock breaks down into smaller pieces. These pieces make their way into the soil. Phosphate gets into the water through erosion, leaching, run off. Most settles at the bottom (turns into sediment) Some phosphate is taken up by aquatic plants. Mountains and hills are created when rock gets uplifted
