phosphorus

Phosphorus is one of the key elements necessary for growth of plants and animals. Phosphates (PO4---) are formed from this element. Phosphates exist in three forms: orthophosphate, metaphosphate (or polyphosphate) and organically bound phosphate. Each compound contains phosphorous in a different chemical formula. Ortho forms are produced by natural processes and are found in sewage. Poly forms are used for treating boiler waters and in detergents. In water, they change into the ortho form. Organic phosphates are important in nature. Their occurrence may result from the breakdown of organic pesticides, which contain phosphates. They may exist in solution, as particles, loose fragments or in the bodies of aquatic organisms. Rainfall can cause varying amounts of phosphates to wash from farm soils into nearby waterways. Phosphate will stimulate the growth of plankton and aquatic plants which provide food for fish. This may cause an increase in the fish population and improve the overall water quality. However, if an excess of phosphate enters the waterway, algae and aquatic plants will grow wildly, choke up the waterway and use up large amounts of oxygen. This condition is known as eutrophication or over-fertilization of receiving waters. This rapid growth of aquatic vegetation eventually dies and as it decays it uses up oxygen. This process in turn causes the death of aquatic life because of the further reduction of dissolved oxygen levels.



The term "phosphorus" was found in the following pages:

Instrument database: LUMEX Ltd. - InfraLUMŽ FT-10 Near-IR FT Spectrometer
Link database: Chemical Fact Sheet: Rhenium
Material database: Sigma-Aldrich - Matrix CRM - Soil, Sludge, Sediment: Trace Metals - Sewage Sludge 3
Gadolinium found in the brain of a patient two years after having received a Gd-based contrast agent for medical imaging | EVISA's News
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Material database: Sigma-Aldrich - Matrix CRM - Soil, Sludge, Sediment: Trace Elements on Fresh Water Sediment
Material database: Sigma-Aldrich - Matrix CRM - Soil, Sludge, Sediment: Trace Metals - Wet Sewage Sludge
Instrument database: Thermo Scientific - ELEMENT XR
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Directory of scientists: Paul J. Worsfold
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Instrument database: Agilent Technologies Inc. - GC-ICP-MS Interface
Material database: JRC - Joint Research Centre - BCR-033 - Superphosphate
Link database: Chemical Fact Sheet: Lanthanum
Iron Species Determination based on HPLC with a Short Column and Detection by ICP-OES | EVISA's News
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Ion chromatography hyphenated with inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (IC-ICP-OES) for the determination of inositol phosphates in food and feed | EVISA's News
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