British Sign Language Glossaries of Curriculum Terms

BSL Environmental Science Glossary - Phosphorus cycle definition

Definition: Biogeographical cycles – Phosphorus cycle: The phosphorus cycle shows how phosphorus moves through all the different parts of the environment – the ground, the air and living organisms. Phosphorus is a mineral found underground.

When it rains, water runs through the phosphorus-rich rocks and becomes saturated with phosphorus. Plants take up the water from the ground and the phosphorus with it. Humans and animals eat the plants and, in turn, ingest the phosphorus. When another animal predates on the plant-eating animal, the predator too ingests the mineral. In this way, phosphorus is passed on from organism to organism. When an organism dies, and its body decays into the ground, the phosphorus re-mineralises and is returned to the soil. And so the cycle begins again when rain falls onto the phosphorus and is taken up by plants and so on, again and again.