Growth of the Amazon rainforest in our increasingly carbon-rich atmosphere could be limited by a lack of phosphorus in the soil, new research shows.
Plants & Animals
2 hours ago
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34
Virtually all marine life—fish, turtles, sharks, whales and more—depend on the marine food web for survival. The foundation of this immense flow of energy, however, rests on the shoulders of the microscopic but mighty ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 21, 2022
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532
Singapore Center for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and the National University of Singapore, have developed a technique to remove ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 13, 2022
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10
As any gardener or farmer can tell you, nitrogen and phosphorus are chemical elements found in soils and fertilizers that plants need to grow. They also know different ratios of nitrogen and phosphorus are ideal or detrimental ...
Ecology
Jul 12, 2022
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111
Soil microbes (in terms of functional gene content) are key drivers of ecosystem functions, but their functional characterization and their ecological contributions are not sufficiently understood. It is important to understand ...
Ecology
Jun 24, 2022
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67
A team of researchers from several institutions in Niger, Germany and the U.K. has conducted a real-world test of the use of human urine as a natural form of fertilizer for crops. In their paper published in the journal Agronomy ...
Phosphorus is an essential but often overlooked resource, which is vital for life on Earth and is extracted from phosphate rock for use in crop fertilizers, livestock feeds and food additives. A major new report by scientists ...
Ecology
Jun 09, 2022
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45
Reducing levels of the nutrient phosphorus to control harmful algal blooms in places like Lake Erie is actually advantageous to toxic cyanobacteria strains, which can lead to an increase in toxins in the water, according ...
Ecology
May 26, 2022
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74
The Great Lakes cover nearly 95,000 square miles (250,000 square kilometers) and hold over 20% of Earth's surface fresh water. More than 30 million people in the U.S. and Canada rely on them for drinking water. The lakes ...
Environment
May 19, 2022
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22
Chemists at the Technische Universität Dresden have developed a new, more sustainable process for synthesizing numerous important everyday chemicals from white phosphorus. The new process has the potential to establish innovative, ...
Biochemistry
Apr 25, 2022
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125
Phosphorus (pronounced /ˈfɒsfərəs/) is the chemical element that has the symbol P and atomic number 15. A multivalent nonmetal of the nitrogen group, phosphorus is commonly found in inorganic phosphate rocks. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms - white phosphorus and red phosphorus. Although the term "phosphorescence", meaning glow after illumination, derives from phosphorus, glow of phosphorus originates from oxidation of the white (but not red) phosphorus and should be called chemiluminescence.
Due to its high reactivity, phosphorus is never found as a free element in nature on Earth. The first form of phosphorus to be discovered (white phosphorus, discovered in 1669) emits a faint glow upon exposure to oxygen — hence its name given from Greek mythology, Φωσφόρος meaning "light-bearer" (Latin Lucifer), referring to the "Morning Star", the planet Venus.
Phosphorus is a component of DNA, RNA, ATP, and also the phospholipids which form all cell membranes. It is thus an essential element for all living cells. The most important commercial use of phosphorus-based chemicals is the production of fertilizers.
Phosphorus compounds are also widely used in explosives, nerve agents, friction matches, fireworks, pesticides, toothpaste and detergents.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
