How human activities interfere phosphorus cycle?

Answer 1

The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth. It is one of the most important cycles of the earth and allows for carbon to be recycled and reused throughout the biosphere and all of its organisms.

The coal, oil, and natural gas that drive the industrial world's economy all contain carbon inhaled by plants hundreds of millions of years ago-carbon that now is returning to the atmosphere through smokestacks and exhaust pipes, joining emissions from forest burned to clear land in poorer countries. Carbon dioxide is foremost in an array of gases from human activity that increase the atmosphere's ability to trap heat. (Methane from cattle, rice fields, and landfills, and the chlorofluorocarbons in some refrigerators and air conditioners are others.) Few scientists doubt that this greenhouse warming of the atmosphere is already taking hold. Melting glaciers, earlier springs, and a steady rise in global average temperature are just some of its harbingers.

By rights it should be worse. Each year humanity dumps roughly 8.8 billion tons (8 metric tons) of carbon into the atmosphere, 6.5 billion tons (5.9 metric tons) from fossil fuels and 1.5 billion (1.4 metric) from deforestation. But less than half that total, 3.2 billion tons (2.9 metric tons), remains in the atmosphere to warm the planet.

Phosphorous is a multivalent nonmetal of the nitrogen group. It is found in nature in several allotropic forms, and is an essential element for the life of organisms. Concentrated phosphoric acids are used in fertilizers for agriculture and farm production. Phosphates are used for special glasses, sodium lamps, in steel production, in military applications (incendiary bombs, smoke screenings etc.), and in other applications as: pyrotechnics, pesticides, toothpaste, detergents. White phosphorus enters the environment when industries use it to make other chemicals and when the army uses it as ammunition. Through discharge of wastewater white phosphorus ends up in surface waters near the factories that use it.

White phosphorus is not likely to spread, because it reacts with oxygen fairly quickly. When phosphorus ends up in air through exhausts it will usually react with oxygen right away to be converted into less harmful particles. However, when phosphorus particles are in air they may have a protective coating that prevents chemical reactions.

In water, white phosphorus is not reacting with other particles that quickly and as a result it will accumulate in the bodies of aquatic organisms. In soil phosphorus will remain for several days before it is converted into less harmful substances. But in deep soils and the bottom of rivers and lakes phosphorus may remain for a thousand years or so.

phosphorus have many effects upon organisms. The effects are mainly consequences of emissions of large quantities of phosphate into the environment due to mining and cultivating. During water purification phosphates are often not removed properly, so that they can spread over large distances when found in surface waters. Due to the constant addition of phosphorus by humans and the exceeding of the natural concentrations, the phosphor cycle is strongly disrupted. The increasing phosphor concentrations in surface waters raise the growth of phosphate-dependent organisms, such as algae and duckweed. These organisms use great amounts of oxygen and prevent sunlight from entering the water. This makes the water fairly unliveable for other organisms. This phenomenon is commonly known as eutrophication.

Answer 2

commercial fertilizers, phosphate containing detergents, animals wastes from large-scale livestock farming,some industrial waste, and untreated human sewageall enter the waterways