How is phosphorus bad for the environment

According to several experts, in most cases phosphorus is not needed to maintain a healthy lawn. Retailers near towns that have enacted a ban are required to alert customers about the prohibition of phosphorus in fertilizers for lawn and turf by posting a sign where fertilizers are sold. Skip to main content. National Aquatic Resource Surveys. Contact Us. Indicators: Phosphorus. What is phosphorus? Some algal blooms are harmful to humans because they produce elevated toxins and bacterial growth that can make people sick if they come into contact with polluted water, consume tainted fish or shellfish, or drink contaminated water.

Nutrient pollution in ground water - which millions of people in the United States use as their drinking water source - can be harmful, even at low levels. Infants are vulnerable to a nitrogen-based compound called nitrates in drinking water. Excess nitrogen in the atmosphere can produce pollutants such as ammonia and ozone, which can impair our ability to breathe, limit visibility and alter plant growth. When excess nitrogen comes back to earth from the atmosphere, it can harm the health of forests, soils and waterways.

To learn more, read about the sources and solutions of nutrient pollution. Skip to main content. 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, as loose fragments, or in the bodies of aquatic organisms. Methodology: The analysis of phosphorus uses an atomic absorption spectrophotometer.

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 dissolved 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 in the water, it uses up dissolved oxygen.

This process, in turn, causes the death of aquatic life because of the lowering of dissolved oxygen levels. Phosphates are not toxic to people or animals unless they are present in very high levels, i. Digestive problems could occur from extremely high levels of phosphate, leading to Hyperphosphatemia. The adjective oligotrophic may be used to refer to environments that offer little to sustain life, organisms that survive in such environments, or to the adaptations that support survival.

These lakes are commonly clear water lakes and ponds with beds of submerged aquatic plants and medium levels of nutrients. The term mesotrophic is also applied to terrestrial habitats. Eutrophication from Greek eutrophos , "well-nourished" , or hypertrophication, is when a body of water becomes overly enriched with minerals and nutrients which induce excessive growth of algae.