The Nitrogen Cycle

Of Microbes and Men

by John Arthur Harrison, Ph.D.

Key Concepts hide

• The nitrogen cycle is the set of biogeochemical processes by which nitrogen

undergoes chemical reactions, changes form, and moves through difference
reservoirs on earth, including living organisms.
• Nitrogen is required for all organisms to live and grow because it is the
essential component of DNA, RNA, and protein. However, most organisms cannot
use atmospheric nitrogen, the largest reservoir.
• The five processes in the nitrogen cycle -- fixation, uptake, mineralization,
nitrification, and denitrification -- are all driven by microorganisms.
• Humans influence the global nitrogen cycle primarily through the use of
nitrogen-based fertilizers.

Nitrogen (N) is an essential component of DNA, RNA, and proteins, the building
blocks of life. All organisms require nitrogen to live and grow. Although the majority
of the air we breathe is N2, most of the nitrogen in the atmosphere is unavailable
for use by organisms. This is because the strong triple bond between the N atoms
in N2 molecules makes it relatively inert. In fact, in order for plants and animals to
be able to use nitrogen, N2 gas must first be converted to more a chemically
available form such as ammonium (NH4+), nitrate (NO3-), or organic nitrogen (e.g.
urea - (NH2)2CO). The inert nature of N2 means that biologically available nitrogen
is often in short supply in natural ecosystems, limiting plant growth and biomass
accumulation.

Nitrogen is an incredibly versatile element, existing in both inorganic and organic

forms as well as many different oxidation states. The movement of nitrogen
between the atmosphere, biosphere, and geosphere in different forms is described
by the nitrogen cycle (Figure 1), one of the major biogeochemical cycles. Similar to
the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle consists of various storage pools of nitrogen
and processes by which the pools exchange nitrogen (arrows) (see our The Carbon
Cycle module for more information).
 Figure 1: The nitrogen cycle. Yellow arrows indicate human sources of nitrogen to
the environment. Red arrows indicate microbial transformations of nitrogen. Blue
arrows indicate physical forces acting on nitrogen. And green arrows indicate
natural, non-microbial processes affecting the form and fate of nitrogen.

Five main processes cycle nitrogen through the biosphere, atmosphere, and
geosphere: nitrogen fixation, nitrogen uptake (organismal growth), nitrogen
mineralization (decay), nitrification, and denitrification. Microorganisms, particularly
bacteria, play major roles in all of the principal nitrogen transformations. As
microbially mediated processes, these nitrogen transformations tend to occur faster
than geological processes like plate motion, a very slow, purely physical process
that is a part of the carbon cycle. Instead, rates are affected by environmental
factors that influence microbial activity, such as temperature, moisture, and
resource availability.

©The Microbial World

Figure 2: Part of a clover root system bearing naturally occurring nodules of

Rhizobium, bacteria that can fix atmospheric nitrogen. Each nodule is about 2-3
 mm long. Image courtesy of
http://helios.bto.ed.ac.uk/bto/microbes/nitrogen.htm.

Nitrogen fixation

N2 NH4+ Nitrogen fixation is the process wherein N2 is converted to ammonium,

essential because it is the only way that organisms can attain nitrogen directly from
the atmosphere. Certain bacteria, for example those among the genus Rhizobium,
are the only organisms that fix nitrogen through metabolic processes. Nitrogen
fixing bacteria often form symbiotic relationships with host plants. This symbiosis is
well-known to occur in the legume family of plants (e.g. beans, peas, and clover).
In this relationship, nitrogen fixing bacteria inhabit legume root nodules (Figure 2)
and receive carbohydrates and a favorable environment from their host plant in
exchange for some of the nitrogen they fix. There are also nitrogen fixing bacteria
that exist without plant hosts, known as free-living nitrogen fixers. In aquatic
environments, blue-green algae (really a bacteria called cyanobacteria) is an
important free-living nitrogen fixer.

In addition to nitrogen fixing bacteria, high-energy natural events such as lightning,

forest fires, and even hot lava flows can cause the fixation of smaller, but
significant amounts of nitrogen (Figure 3). The high energy of these natural
phenomena can break the triple bonds of N2 molecules, thereby making individual
N atoms available for chemical transformation.

Within the last century, humans have become as important a source of fixed
nitrogen as all natural sources combined. Burning fossil fuels, using synthetic
nitrogen fertilizers, and cultivation of legumes all fix nitrogen. Through these
activities, humans have more than doubled the amount of fixed nitrogen that is
pumped into the biosphere every year (Figure 3), the consequences of which are
discussed below.
 Figure 3: Recent increases in anthropogenic N fixation in relation
to “natural” N fixation. Modified from Vitousek, P. M. and P. A.
Matson (1993). Agriculture, the global nitrogen cycle, and trace
gas flux. The Biogeochemistry of Global Change: Radiative Trace
Gases. R. S. Oremland. New York, Chapman and Hall: 193-208.

Nitrogen uptake

NH4+ Organic N The ammonia produced by nitrogen fixing bacteria is usually

quickly incorporated into protein and other organic nitrogen compounds, either by a
host plant, the bacteria itself, or another soil organism. When organisms nearer the
top of the food chain (like us!) eat, we are using nitrogen that has been fixed
initially by nitrogen fixing bacteria.

Nitrogen mineralization

Organic N NH4+ After nitrogen is incorporated into organic matter, it is often

converted back into inorganic nitrogen by a process called nitrogen mineralization,
otherwise known as decay. When organisms die, decomposers (such as bacteria
and fungi) consume the organic matter and lead to the process of decomposition.
During this process, a significant amount of the nitrogen contained within the dead
organism is converted to ammonium. Once in the form of ammonium, nitrogen is
available for use by plants or for further transformation into nitrate (NO3-) through
the process called nitrification.

Nitrification

NH4+ NO3- Some of the ammonium produced by decomposition is converted to

nitrate via a process called nitrification. The bacteria that carry out this reaction
gain energy from it. Nitrification requires the presence of oxygen, so nitrification
can happen only in oxygen-rich environments like circulating or flowing waters and
the very surface layers of soils and sediments. The process of nitrification has some
important consequences. Ammonium ions are positively charged and therefore stick
(are sorbed) to negatively charged clay particles and soil organic matter. The
positive charge prevents ammonium nitrogen from being washed out of the soil (or
leached) by rainfall. In contrast, the negatively charged nitrate ion is not held by
soil particles and so can be washed down the soil profile, leading to decreased soil
fertility and nitrate enrichment of downstream surface and groundwaters.

Denitrification

NO3- N2+ N2O Through denitrification, oxidized forms of nitrogen such as nitrate
and nitrite (NO2-) are converted to dinitrogen (N2) and, to a lesser extent, nitrous
oxide gas. Denitrification is an anaerobic process that is carried out by denitrifying
bacteria, which convert nitrate to dinitrogen in the following sequence:

NO3- NO2- NO N2O N2.

Nitric oxide and nitrous oxide are both environmentally important gases. Nitric
oxide (NO) contributes to smog, and nitrous oxide (N2O) is an important
greenhouse gas, thereby contributing to global climate change.

Once converted to dinitrogen, nitrogen is unlikely to be reconverted to a biologically

available form because it is a gas and is rapidly lost to the atmosphere.
Denitrification is the only nitrogen transformation that removes nitrogen from
ecosystems (essentially irreversibly), and it roughly balances the amount of
nitrogen fixed by the nitrogen fixers described above.

Human alteration of the N cycle and its environmental consequences

Early in the 20th century, a German scientist named Fritz Haber figured out how to
short circuit the nitrogen cycle by fixing nitrogen chemically at high temperatures
and pressures, creating fertilizers that could be added directly to soil. This
technology has spread rapidly over the past century, and, along with the advent of
new crop varieties, the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers has led to an enormous
boom in agricultural productivity. This agricultural productivity has helped us to
feed a rapidly growing world population, but the increase in nitrogen fixation has
had some negative consequences as well. While the consequences are perhaps not
as obvious as an increase in global temperatures or a hole in the ozone layer, they
are just as serious and potentially harmful for humans and other organisms.

Not all of the nitrogen fertilizer applied to agricultural fields stays to nourish crops.
Some is washed off of agricultural fields by rain or irrigation water, where it leaches
into surface or ground water and can accumulate. In groundwater that is used as a
drinking water source, excess nitrogen can lead to cancer in humans and
respiratory distress in infants. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has
established a standard for nitrogen in drinking water of 10 mg per liter nitrate-N.
Unfortunately, many systems (particularly in agricultural areas) already exceed this
level. By comparison, nitrate levels in waters that have not been altered by human
activity are rarely greater than 1 mg/L. In surface waters, added nitrogen can lead
to nutrient over-enrichment, particularly in coastal waters receiving the inflow from
polluted rivers. This nutrient over-enrichment, also called eutrophication, has been
blamed for increased frequencies of coastal fish-kill events, increased frequencies
of harmful algal blooms, and species shifts within coastal ecosystems.

Reactive nitrogen (like NO3- and NH4+) present in surface waters and soils, can also
enter the atmosphere as the smog-component nitric oxide (NO) and the
greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). Eventually, this atmospheric nitrogen can be
blown into nitrogen-sensitive terrestrial environments, causing long-term changes.
For example, nitrogen oxides comprise a significant portion of the acidity in acid
rain which has been blamed for forest death and decline in parts of Europe and the
Northeast United States. Increases in atmospheric nitrogen deposition have also
been blamed for more subtle shifts in dominant species and ecosystem function in
some forest and grassland ecosystems. For example, on nitrogen-poor serpentine
soils of northern Californian grasslands, plant assemblages have historically been
limited to native species that can survive without a lot of nitrogen. There is now
some evidence that elevated levels of atmospheric N input from nearby industrial
and agricultural development have paved the way for invasion by non-native
plants. As noted earlier, NO is also a major factor in the formation of smog, which
is known to cause respiratory illnesses like asthma in both children and adults.

Currently, much research is devoted to understanding the effects of nitrogen

enrichment in the air, groundwater, and surface water. Scientists are also exploring
alternative agricultural practices that will sustain high productivity while decreasing
the negative impacts caused by fertilizer use. These studies not only help us
quantify how humans have altered the natural world, but increase our
understanding of the processes involved in the nitrogen cycle as a whole.

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The Carbon Cycle

What Goes Around Comes Around

by John Arthur Harrison, Ph.D.

Key Concepts hide

• The carbon cycle is the set of biogeochemical processes by which carbon

undergoes chemical reactions, changes form, and moves through different
reservoirs on earth, including living organisms.
• The geological component of the carbon cycle is driven by plate tectonics
and includes processes like volcanic eruptions and burial of carbon-rich sediments
on the ocean floor.
• The biological component of the carbon cycle is driven by respiration and
photosynthesis by living organisms.
• Humans influence the global carbon cycle in several ways, but primarily
through burning fossil fuels.

Carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the universe, and is absolutely
essential to life on earth. In fact, carbon constitutes the very definition of life, as its
presence or absence helps define whether a molecule is considered to be organic or
inorganic. Every organism on Earth needs carbon either for structure, energy, or,
as in the case of humans, for both. Discounting water, you are about half carbon.
Additionally, carbon is found in forms as diverse as the gas carbon dioxide (CO2),
and in solids like limestone (CaCO3), wood, plastic, diamonds, and graphite.

The movement of carbon, in its many forms, between the atmosphere, oceans,
biosphere, and geosphere is described by the carbon cycle (Figure 1). This cycle
consists of several storage pools of carbon (black text) and the processes by which
the various pools exchange carbon (purple arrows and numbers). If more carbon
enters a pool than leaves it, that pool is considered a net carbon sink. If more
carbon leaves a pool than enters it, that pool is considered net carbon source.
 ©NASA

Figure 1: A cartoon of the global carbon cycle. Pools (in black) are gigatons (1Gt =
1x109 Tons) of carbon, and fluxes (in purple) are Gt carbon per year. Illustration
courtesy NASA Earth Science Enterprise.

The global carbon cycle, one of the major biogeochemical cycles, can be divided
into geological and biological components. The geological carbon cycle operates on
a time scale of millions of years, whereas the biological carbon cycle operates on a
time scale of days to thousands of years.

The geological carbon cycle

The geological component of the carbon cycle is where it interacts with the rock
cycle in the processes of weathering and dissolution, precipitation of minerals,
burial and subduction, and volcanism (see our The Rock Cycle module for
information). In the atmosphere, carbonic acid forms by a reaction with
atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and water. As this weakly acidic water reaches
the earth as rain, it reacts with minerals at the earth’s surface, slowly dissolving
them into their component ions through the process of chemical weathering. These
component ions are carried in surface waters like streams and rivers eventually to
the ocean, where they precipitate out as minerals like calcite (CaCO3). Through
continued deposition and burial, this calcite sediment forms the rock called
limestone.
This cycle continues as seafloor spreading pushes the seafloor under continental
margins in the process of subduction. As seafloor carbon is pushed deeper into the
earth by tectonic forces, it heats up, eventually melts, and can rise back up to the
surface, where it is released as CO2 and returned to the atmosphere. This return to
the atmosphere can occur violently through volcanic eruptions, or more gradually in
seeps, vents, and CO2-rich hotsprings. Tectonic uplift can also expose previously
buried limestone. One example of this occurs in the Himalayas where some of the
world’s highest peaks are formed of material that was once at the bottom of the
ocean. Weathering, subduction, and volcanism control atmospheric carbon dioxide
concentrations over time periods of hundreds of millions of years.

The Biological carbon cycle

Biology plays an important role in the movement of carbon between land, ocean,
and atmosphere through the processes of photosynthesis and respiration. Virtually
all multicellular life on Earth depends on the production of sugars from sunlight and
carbon dioxide (photosynthesis) and the metabolic breakdown (respiration) of
those sugars to produce the energy needed for movement, growth, and
reproduction. Plants take in carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere during
photosynthesis, and release CO2 back into the atmosphere during respiration
through the following chemical reactions:

Respiration:

C6H12O6 (organic matter) + 6O2 6CO2 + 6 H2O + energy

Photosynthesis:

energy (sunlight) + 6CO2 + H2O C6H12O6 + 6O2

Through photosynthesis, green plants use solar energy to turn atmospheric carbon
dioxide into carbohydrates (sugars). Plants and animals use these carbohydrates
(and other products derived from them) through a process called respiration, the
reverse of photosynthesis. Respiration releases the energy contained in sugars for
use in metabolism and changes carbohydrate “fuel” back into carbon dioxide, which
is in turn released back to the atmosphere. The amount of carbon taken up by
photosynthesis and released back to the atmosphere by respiration each year is
about 1,000 times greater than the amount of carbon that moves through the
geological cycle on an annual basis.

On land, the major exchange of carbon with the atmosphere results from
photosynthesis and respiration. During daytime in the growing season, leaves
absorb sunlight and take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. At the same time
plants, animals, and soil microbes consume the carbon in organic matter and return
carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Photosynthesis stops at night when the sun
cannot provide the driving energy for the reaction, though respiration continues.
This kind of imbalance between these two processes is reflected in seasonal
changes in the atmospheric CO2 concentrations. During winter in the northern
hemisphere, photosynthesis ceases when many plants lose their leaves, but
respiration continues. This condition leads to an increase in atmospheric CO2
concentrations during the northern hemisphere winter. With the onset of spring,
however, photosynthesis resumes and atmospheric CO2 concentrations are
reduced. This cycle is reflected in the monthly means (the light blue line) of
atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations shown in Figure 2.

©NASA

Figure 2: The “Keeling curve,” a long-term record of atmospheric CO2

concentration measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory (Keeling et al.). Although
the annual oscillations represent natural, seasonal variations, the long-term
increase means that concentrations are higher than they have been in 400,000
years (see text and Figure 3). Graphic courtesy of NASA’s Earth Observatory.

In the oceans, phytoplankton (microscopic marine plants that form the base of the
marine food chain) use carbon to make shells of calcium carbonate (CaCO3 ). The
shells settle to the bottom of the ocean when phytoplankton die and are buried in
the sediments. The shells of phytoplankton and other creatures can become
compressed over time as they are buried and are often eventually transformed into
limestone. Additionally, under certain geological conditions, organic matter can be
buried and over time form deposits of the carbon-containing fuels coal and oil. It is
the non-calcium containing organic matter that is transformed into fossil fuel. Both
limestone formation and fossil fuel formation are biologically controlled processes
and represent long-term sinks for atmospheric CO2.

Human Alteration of the Carbon Cycle

Recently, scientists have studied both short- and long-term measurements of

atmospheric CO2 levels. Charles Keeling, an oceanographer at the Scripps Institute
of Oceanography, is responsible for creating the longest continuous record of
atmospheric CO2 concentrations, taken at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii. His
data (now widely known as the “Keeling curve,” shown in Figure 2) revealed that
human activities are significantly altering the natural carbon cycle. Since the onset
of the industrial revolution about 150 years ago, human activities such as the
burning of fossil fuels and deforestation have accelerated, and both have
contributed to a long-term rise in atmospheric CO2. Burning oil and coal releases
carbon into the atmosphere far more rapidly than it is being removed, and this
imbalance causes atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations to increase. In
addition, by clearing forests, we reduce the ability of photosynthesis to remove CO2
from the atmosphere, also resulting in a net increase. Because of these human
activities, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are higher today than they
have been over the last half-million years or longer.

Because CO2 increases the atmosphere’s ability to hold heat, it has been called a
“greenhouse gas.” Scientists believe that the increase in CO2 is already causing
important changes in the global climate. Many attribute the observed 0.6 degree C
increase in global average temperature over the past century mainly to increases in
atmospheric CO2. Without substantive changes in global patterns of fossil fuel
consumption and deforestation, warming trends are likely to continue. The best
scientific estimate is that global mean temperature will increase between 1.4 and
5.8 degrees C over the next century as a result of increases in atmospheric CO2 and
other greenhouse gases. This kind of increase in global temperature would cause
significant rise in average sea-level (0.09-0.88 meters), exposing low-lying coastal
cities or cities located by tidal rivers such as New Orleans, Portland, Washington,
and Philadelphia to increasingly frequent and severe floods. Glacial retreat and
species range shifts are also likely to result from global warming, and it remains to
be seen whether relatively immobile species such as trees can shift their ranges
fast enough to keep pace with warming.

Even without the changes in climate, however, increased concentrations of CO2

could have an important impact on patterns of plant growth worldwide. Because
some species of plants respond more favorably to increases in CO2 than others,
scientists believe we may see pronounced shifts in plant species as a result of
increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations, even without any change in
temperature. For example, under elevated CO2 conditions, shrubs are thought to
respond more favorably than certain grass species due to their slightly different
photosynthetic pathway. Because of this competitive inequality, some scientists
have hypothesized that grasslands will be invaded by CO2-responsive grass species
or shrubby species as CO2 increases.

Figure 3: CO2 over the past 140,000 years as seen in an ice core
and in the modern Mauna Loa record. The red line represents
predicted concentrations. Figure courtesy of :
www.uoregon.edu/~dogsci/dorsey/ geo103/CO2.Vostok.jpg

In an attempt to understand whether recently observed changes in the global

carbon cycle are a new phenomenon, or have instead occurred throughout geologic
history, scientists have devoted considerable effort to developing methods for
understanding Earth’s past atmosphere and climate. These techniques include
analysis of gas bubbles trapped in ice, tree rings, and ocean and lake floor
sediments for clues about past climates and atmospheres. Together, these
techniques suggest that over the past 20 million years, the Earth’s climate has
oscillated between relatively warm and relatively cold conditions called interglacial
and glacial periods. During interglacial periods, atmospheric CO2 concentrations
were relatively high, and during glacial periods, CO2 concentrations were relatively
low. We are currently in an interglacial warm period, and human activities are
pushing CO2 concentrations higher than they have been for hundreds of thousands
of years (Figure 3).

Understanding and mitigating negative impacts of atmospheric CO2 enrichment

constitute two of the most central challenges that environmental scientists and
policy makers currently face. In order to address this issue, the scientific
community has formed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an
international, interdisciplinary consortium comprised of thousands of climate
experts collaborating to produce consensus reports on climate change science.
Many nations have agreed to conditions specified by the Kyoto Protocol, a
multilateral treaty aimed at averting the negative impacts associated with human-
induced climate change. The United States, which is currently responsible for
approximately one quarter of global CO2 emissions, has so far declined to
participate in the Kyoto Protocol.

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Carbon Cycle in Microorganisms

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The carbon cycle in microorganisms is part of a larger cycling of carbon that occurs on
the global scale. The actions of microorganisms help extract carbon from non-living
sources and make the carbon available to living organisms (including themselves).
The cycling of carbon by microorganisms, including a variety of bacteria and fungi,
occurs in aquatic habitats. Even relatively oxygen-free zones such as in the deep mud of
lakes, ponds and other water bodies can be regions where the anaerobic conversion of
carbon takes place.
Much of the carbon that enters the carbon cycle of microorganisms is carbon dioxide.
This form of carbon exists as a gas in the atmosphere and can be dissolved in water.
The atmospheric carbon dioxide can be converted to organic material in the process of
photosynthesis. Photosynthetic algae are important microorganisms in this regard. As
well, chemoautotrophs, primarily bacteria and archae are capable of carbon dioxide
conversion. In both systems the carbon dioxide is converted to chains that are
comprised of sugars that have the structure CH2O.
Both types of conversion take place in the presence and the absence of oxygen. Algal
involvement is an aerobic process. The conversion of carbon dioxide to sugar is an
energy-requiring process that generates oxygen as a by-product. This evolution of
oxygen also occurs in plants and is one of the recognized vital benefits of trees to life on
Earth.
The carbon available in the carbohydrate sugar molecules is cycled further by
microorganisms in a series of reactions that form the so-called tricarboxylic acid (or
TCA) cycle. The breakdown of the carbohydrate serves to supply energy to the
microorganism. This process is also known as respiration. In anaerobic environments,
microorganisms can cycle the carbon compounds to yield energy in a process known as
fermentation.
Carbon dioxide can be converted to another gas called methane (CH4). This occurs in
anaerobic environments, such as deep compacted mud, and is accomplished by bacteria
known as methanogenic bacteria. The conversion, which requires hydrogen, yields
water and energy for the methanogens. To complete the recycling pattern another group
of methane bacteria called methane-oxidizing bacteria or methanotrophs (literally
"methane eaters") can convert methane to carbon dioxide. This conversion, which is an
aerobic (oxygen-requiring) process, also yields water and energy. Methanotrophs tend
to live at the boundary between aerobic and anaerobic zones. There they have access to
the methane produced by the anaerobic methanogenic bacteria, but also access to the
oxygen needed for their conversion of the methane.
Other microorganisms are able to participate in the cycling of carbon. For example the
green and purple sulfur bacteria are able to use the energy they gain from the
degradation of a compound called hydrogen sulfide to degrade carbon compounds.
Other bacteria such as Thiobacillus ferrooxidans uses the energy gained from the
removal of an electron from iron-containing compounds to convert carbon.
The anerobic degradation of carbon is done only by microorganisms. This degradation
is a collaborative effort involving numerous bacteria. Examples of the bacteria include
Bacteroides succinogenes, Clostridium butyricum, and Syntrophomonas sp. This
bacterial collaboration, which is termed interspecies hydrogen transfer, is responsible
for the bulk of the carbon dioxide and methane that is released to the atmosphere.
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Phosphorus Cycle
Sources of Phosphates
There is no significant gaseous component of
phosphorus and transfer in the air is in
particulates or sea spray. All phosphorus exists
in phosphate form. It is believed that all original
phosphates came from weathering of rocks.
Phosphate is found in soil, plants and in
microbes in a number of organic and inorganic
compounds. It is second only to nitrogen as an
inorganic nutrient required by both plants and
microbes.

The chief source of organic phosphorus compounds entering the soil is the vast quantity of
vegetation that undergoes decay. In plants, this element is found in several compounds or in
groups of substances as phytin, phospholipids, nucleic acids, co-enzymes, etc. and in animals it
is found in bones as well.

Although the total phosphorus content of soils is Your Ad Here

large, in most soils only a small fraction is
available to biota, primarily because of chemical
fixation. Through geological time (hundreds of
millions of years), phosphorus-containing
sediments are buried, uplifted and subject to rock
weathering, completing the global cycle. Mining
the phosphorus from apatite (3Ca3[PO4]2.
Ca[FeCI]2), which is primarily biological in origin,
is the main source of phosphatic fertiliser (about
14 million metric tons per year).

Phosphorus is easily fixed by chemical reactions with Ca2+, Mg2+, Fe2+ etc. Both too high and too
low pH values can result In P fixation, for example:
2PO43+ + 3Ca2+ (or Mg2+ Fe2+ etc.) Ca3(PO4)2
Microbes playa role in the process of converting organic phosphorus to inorganic phosphate, and
in solubilising chemically fixed phosphates (mycorrhizae and rhizosphere activities). They bring
about a number of transformations of the element by altering the solubility of inorganic
compounds of phosphorus, mineralisation of organic compounds with the release of ionic
phosphorus, converting the available inorganic phosphorus into cell components, an
immobilisation process and bringing about oxidation-reduction of inorganic phosphorus
compounds.

The important steps in the phosphorus cycle are

microbial mineralisation and immobilisation as
shown in
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In contrast to nitrogen, the plant does not
reduce phosphate Phosphate ion enters into
organic combination largely unaltered.
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interactions/phosphorus-cycle.html