The phosphate cycle

• What do plants and animals need phosphate for?

  • ATP
  • DNA
  • RNA
  • Phospholipids
• What does hyphae do?


  absorbs water and nutrients, making it easier for plants to then absorb water and nutrients
• Where is fungi?


  In the soil
• How do fungi and plants have a symbiotic relationship?

  The fungi absorbs water and nutrients for the plant, the plant produces glucose for the fungi to absorb
• How do fungi get energy?

  Absorbing the plants glucose as it does not make its own food/energy- heterotroph
• What does a symbiotic relationship mean?

  Mutually beneficial
• What are unsustainable crop practices?

  • Removing the entire crop- no decomposition
  • Artificial fertilisers- requires so much energy to make them
  • Application timing- fertilising the soil before sowing the plant is useless- rainfall, leaching, eutrophication
• What are examples of sustainable crop practices?

  • Using organic waste as fertilisers
  • Crop rotation
  • Only remove the relevant parts of the plant- everything else decomposes
• What does BOD stand for?

  Biological oxygen demand
• what is BOD?


  The amount of oxygen required for the decomposition of organic compounds by microorganisms in a body of water
• Is a high BOD good or bad?


  bad
• What is eutrophication?

  A) Fertiliser runoff or leaching

  B) Algae blooms due to the presence of nutrients

  C) Bacteria uses oxygen to breakdown the algae

  D) Fish suffocate due to the lack of oxygen

  
• What is guano?


  Waste produced by seabirds that contains a high proportion of phosphate ions