This photograph shows the border of a hypoxic zone, or dead zone, in the Gulf of Mexico. Hypoxic zones are areas of the ocean where all ocean life has been killed off by excess phosphorous and nitrogen. The excess P and N in the ocean comes from fertilizer run off.
When people use fertilizer that is not absorbed by plants, the excess runs off into our water table and creeks, streams, rivers, etc. All of these eventually run into our oceans. If the water running into the oceans has excess nutrients, this creates an algae bloom. The algae bloom interrupts the normal balance of the ocean by creating an opaque cover over parts of the ocean.
When the algae uses up the nutrients in the water, the algae dies and falls to the ocean floor. The excess algae decay process uses any oxygen left in that area of the ocean, leaving none for the other life in the ocean. In turn, this creates a dead portion of the ocean, or a Hypoxic Zone.
We have brought many soil samples into the lab from our Vancouver area properties. We have never received a recommendation to add phosphorous to the soil, yet phosphorous is one of the big three in the NPK fertilizer formula: nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. Why do we have ample phosphorous in Vancouver?
Phosphorous breaks into water insoluble compounds in the soil. Typical chemical fertilizers require water to break down the fertilizer for the plant to feed from the nutrients. If the phosphorous is water insoluble, then the plants cannot feed off the chemical phosphorous, designed to be used with water.
This does not mean there is no phosphorous in the soil. This means the plants cannot take it up, and then show signs of phosphorous deficiency. The usual response? Add more phosphorous. Add to this Vancouver's excessive rainfall, and the result is soil high in phosphorous.
Organic forms of phosphorous are not bound in water-insoluble compounds, and plants can feed from them.
