Sodium triphosphate (due to hydrolysis), no studies have been carried out to date concerning the chronic effects of STPP on these aquatic organisms. Predicted no-effect concentrations were therefore calculated for the aquatic environment and sediments on the basis of the acute aquatic ecotoxicity results. Detergents containing phosphorus contribute, together with other sources of phosphorus, to the eutrophication of many fresh waters. Eutrophication is an increase in chemical nutrients—typically compounds containing nitrogen or phosphorus—in an ecosystem. It may occur on land or in water. The term is, however, often used to mean the resultant increase in the ecosystem's primary productivity (excessive plant growth
Liebig's law of the minimum Liebig's law of the minimum Liebig's law of the minimum, often simply called Liebig's law or the law of the minimum, is a principle developed in agricultural science by Carl Sprengel (1828) and later popularized by Justus von Liebig. It states that growth is dictated not by total resources available, but by the scarcest resource (limiting factor). The law has also been applied to biological populations and ecosystem models for factors such as sunlight or mineral nutrients. This concept was originally applied to plant or crop growth, where it was found that increasing the amount of plentiful nutrients did not