Science Group
Question:
potziunea
Student
High School - 10th Grade
What are organic phosphates?
Answers:
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ladyvols1 Teacher
High School - 9th GradeeNotes Editor
Posted by ladyvols1 on Tuesday September 22, 2009 at 11:16 AMAccording to my trusty “American Heritage Dictionary,” an organic phosphate is a phosphate that is found bonded to animal tissue or to plant tissue. They are created through a biological process, and it is now known that organic phosphates can play a role in human and animal metabolism. They can be found in sewage, from body waste and food residue. Scientists have discovered that they can determine how densely an area was populated by studying the amount of organic phosphates in the soil. The areas that were less populated have little organic phosphates in the soil and the areas that were densely populated have larger amounts of organic phosphates in the soil.
"We tentatively conclude that the lower soils belonged to an island site relatively sparsely inhabited and often covered with natural vegetation. The upper soils corresponded to a more dense settlement in which organic phosphate, possibly phytic acid, was deposited on the transient surface and was not incorporated into the soil phosphate cycle."
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