Redox Chemistry in the Phosphorus Biogeochemical Cycle

The element phosphorus (P) controls growth in many ecosystems as the limiting nutrient, where it is broadly considered to reside as pentavalent P in phosphate minerals and organic esters. Exceptions to pentavalent P include phosphine—PH ₃ —a trace atmospheric gas, and phosphite and hypophosphite, P anions that have been detected recently in lightning strikes, eutrophic lakes, geothermal springs, and termite hindguts. Reduced oxidation state P compounds include the phosphonates, characterized by C−P bonds, which bear up to 25% of total organic dissolved phosphorus. Reduced P compounds have been considered to be rare; however, the microbial ability to use reduced P compounds as sole P sources is ubiquitous. Here we show that between 10% and 20% of dissolved P bears a redox state of less than +5 in water samples from central Florida, on average, with some samples bearing almost as much reduced P as phosphate. If the quantity of reduced P observed in the water samples from Florida studied here is broadly characteristic of similar environments on the global scale, it accounts well for the concentration of atmospheric phosphine and provides a rationale for the ubiquity of phosphite utilization genes in nature. Phosphine is generated at a quantity consistent with thermodynamic equilibrium established by the disproportionation reaction of reduced P species. Comprising 10–20% of the total dissolved P inventory in Florida environments, reduced P compounds could hence be a critical part of the phosphorus biogeochemical cycle, and in turn may impact global carbon cycling and methanogenesis.