Phosphorus is an essential nutrient for all marine organisms. High concentrations of phosphorus disturb the balance of marine ecosystems and have been identified as the main culprit for coastal eutrophication in the Baltic Sea. Researchers from inter alia Stockholm University now reports on a new process for natural phosphorus removal.
To remove phosporus permanently from oxygen-free seawater has proven difficult. Of critical importance is to understand the process of apatite formation, a calcium phosphate mineral that is the only stable inorganic form of phosphorus in oxygen-free sediment and water. In a recent publication in the journal Nature Geoscience, Tobias Goldhammer, Volker Brüchert, and colleagues Tim Ferdelman and Mathias Zabel report on a new process in the apatite riddle – bacterial removal of phosphorus from seawater and apatite formation catalyzed by bacteria. In their study, they used sediment from the Benguela upwelling system off Namibia. Why this sediment?...