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The geochemistry, availability and abundance of different forms of phosphorus in soil, water and sediments are reviewed. The present knowledge of phosphorus pathways in ecosystems and their regulation is discussed.In a drainage basin, anthropogenic phosphorus is brought into the system mainly as fertilizers and detergents. Sewer systems and outwash processes transfer the phosphorus from the terrestrial environment to the aquatic part of the ecosystem where an accumulation occurs in the sediments of the watercourse.A great part of the phosphates in soil is sorbed to soil particles or incorporated into soil organic matter. The release and export of phosphorus from uncultivated soil is a function of the geology and soil composition, but also of the air temperature, precipitation and the hydrological condition, pH etc.The solubility of phosphates is controlled by either sorption-desorption or precipitation-dissolution reactions depending on the environment in the soil or sediments. In soil and sediments with large amounts of iron and aluminium hydrous oxides, sorption-desorption reactions are largely responsible for determining the level of orthophosphate in the solution at equilibrium.Algal availability of phosphorus associated with soil-derived materials present in aquatic systems deserves more research. In addition, processes responsible for transport of phosphorus from cropland to aquatic systems and chemical and microbial transformations of phosphorus in lakes and streams deserve more attention.

Emerging contaminants in wastewater and sewage sludge spread on agricultural soil can be transferred to the human food web directly by uptake into food crops or indirectly following uptake into forage crops. This study determined uptake and translocation of the organophosphates tris(1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TCPP) (log Kow 2.59), triethyl-chloro-phosphate (TCEP) (log Kow 1.44), tributyl phosphate (TBP) (log Kow 4.0), the insect repellent N,N-diethyl toluamide (DEET) (log Kow 2.18) and the plasticiser N-butyl benzenesulfonamide (NBBS) (log Kow 2.31) in barley, wheat, oilseed rape, meadow fescue and four cultivars of carrot. All species were grown in pots of agricultural soil, freshly amended contaminants in the range of 0.6–1.0 mg/kg dry weight, in the greenhouse. The bioconcentration factors for root (RCF), leaf (LCF) and seed (SCF) were calculated as plant concentration in root, leaf or seed over measured initial soil concentration, both in dry weight. The chlorinated flame retardants (TCEP and TCPP) displayed the highest bioconcentration factors for leaf and seed but did not show the same pattern for all crop species tested. For TCEP, which has been phased out due to toxicity but is still found in sewage sludge and wastewater, LCF was 3.9 in meadow fescue and 42.3 in carrot. For TCPP, which has replaced TCEP in many products and also occurs in higher residual levels in sewage sludge and wastewater, LCF was high for meadow fescue and carrot (25.9 and 17.5, respectively). For the four cultivars of carrot tested, the RCF range for TCPP and TCEP was 10–20 and 1.7–4.6, respectively. TCPP was detected in all three types of seeds tested (SCF, 0.015–0.110). Despite that DEET and NBBS have log Kow in same range as TCPP and TCEP, generally lower bioconcentration factors were measured. Based on the high translocation of TCPP and TCEP to leaves, especially TCPP, into meadow fescue (a forage crop for livestock animals), ongoing risk assessments should be conducted to investigate the potential effects of these compounds in the food web.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11356-012-1363-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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