Plants Thrive While Dropping Fertilizer Use Soil provides plants with some of the nutrients which are essential to mature, comprising phosphorous. Phosphorous may be used in fertilizers, but it may react with other stuff in the soil when added to plants, forming complexes that keep phosphorous out of the reach of the plants. That suggests that farmers must continue to add more chemical fertilizer to the soil, which over time will allow phosphorous to accumulate in the soil. This abundance of phosphorus and other contaminants will be transported by rainwater to rivers, where the pollution can harm the marine ecosystem. Without requiring farmers to use more fertilizer, scientists have now learned more about a potential alternative solution that can help plants obtain adequate amounts of phosphorous. They noticed that the complexes that take phosphorous away from plants could be able to be unlocked by microbes. In ecosystems that lack sufficient nutrients, microbes taken from wild