School of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering and Sciences

CM011L General Chemistry Laboratory

1st Quarter SY 2019-2020

Experiment No. 6

Ecosystem Dynamics:
Assess the effect of fertilizers
on the phosphorus cycle

Submitted by:

Trinidad, John David, D.

CM011L – OL60

Experiment #│ Group No.│ Date 1 of 2

 School of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering and Sciences
CM011L General Chemistry Laboratory
1st Quarter SY 2019-2020

I. INTRODUCTION

In this activity, we learned how to increase the yield of crops and assess the impact of fertilization on the
phosphorus cycle. The main topic here is ecosystem dynamics, it is the study of the changes
in ecosystem structure caused by environmental disturbances or by internal forces. We are tasked to determine
the cause of the decreasing of total yield of Whean per year. As the experiment is going to the lab, I have
learned a lot of things about the soil and its’ nutrients. We tried to examine all the nutrients of the sample soil in
order to know what causes the problem.

II. ANALYSIS

There are many analyzations in this activity, and I have learned a lot about the nutrients of soil. At first, we
went to the planet ASTAKOS IV, an exoplanet in the Milky Way where there are complex lifeforms. Human pioneers
are migrating to the planet and, after several years, some small settlements have developed. It is said that they have
been planting a type of crop called Whean for five years to feed the human population on the planet. But the amount
of crop harvest is decreasing every year because of that, the shortage in food is increasing. We took a sample soil
and examined it in the lab. We have measured the concentration of phosphorus, nitrogen, and sulfur. We have
determined which nutrient is lacking in the soil, it is the phosphorus. So, we came up with an idea of increasing the
concentration of phosphorus in the soil by adding a surplus of phosphorus. But before that, we need to analyze the
phosphorus cycle and the relative importance of the different phosphorus fractions, we need to analyze it also after.

To measure the soluble phosphorus in the soil, it is needed to extract it with water. Soluble phosphorus is the
only form of phosphorus that photosynthetic organisms can take up, so it is very important if we want to increase the
yield of Whean in the fields. We have determined that weathering is the only process for creating new soluble
phosphorus with the system because there were no living organisms.

Finally, we have added a surplus of phosphorus and the yield has increased. However, the water of some of
the lakes around the plantation is turning pink. It seems like there are a lot of microscopic organisms growing in the
lakes around the plantation. We analyzed again the phosphorus cycle in the soil to solve the other problem. We found
out that different processes may occur at different rate, so the concentration of the different fractions may vary. The
dissolved phosphorus is getting into the lakes causing the bloom of microscopic pink organisms.

III. CONCLUSION

In the first problem, we can conclude that the lack of phosphorus is the cause why the amount of yield every
year decreases. We did this by examining all the nutrients of the soil in the lab one by one. After we solved the first
issue, some parts of the lake became pink. So, we conducted another experiment to determine what causes this new
problem. And then we found out that it is the dissolved phosphorus. All in all, it seems like the leaching and runoff of
nutrients will increase a lot if we use up to 2200 𝑚𝑔 𝑃 × 𝑚−2 × 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ−1 and we have calculated that the leaching plus
run-off will be around 380 𝑚𝑔 𝑃 × 𝑚−2 × 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ−1. With all this information, we can say that we will use 1400 𝑚𝑔 𝑃 ×
𝑚−2 × 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ−1 to increase the yield and also to prevent the dissolved phosphorus get into the lake.

Experiment #│ Group No.│ Date 2 of 2