・Why is it that putting fertilizer on plants can make them healthier and grow better? Well, one reason is that one of the main in gredients of fertilizer is nitrogen.
・After carbon, oxgen, and hydroge is most common element found in livinfg thing.
・It is an essential part of proteins, DNA, and other compounds.
・Like carbon, nitrogen passes along food chains and circulates between the biotic and a biotic parts of the environment.
Nitrogen Fixation!
・Plants use nitrogen(N), phosphorus(P), and potassium(K) for grow.
・THese elements are the three main ingredients of commercial vs fertilizers.
・So then, how do most plants get their nitrogen since most are not given fertilizer.
・Earth's atmosphere is nearly 80% nitrogengas, but most organisms cannot absorb nitrogen directly from the air.
・In order to be used by organisms, nitrogen atoms(similar to carbon atoms) must first be "fixed": that is, pulled from the air and bonded to other elements to make new sompounds.
・This process is called nitrogen fixation.
・Nitrogen fixation is carried out by a few species of nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live in the soil or water.
・The Most important of these species is Rhizobia which live in the nodules of certaing legumes such as peas, beans, alfalfa, and clover - which is why farmers often use a cyop of one or more of these when they rotate their crops!
・The nitrogen can be combined with hydrogen or oxgen to - fromions such as ammonium(NH2+) and (NO3).
・Plants then absorb these compounds through their roots.
・Animals obtain the nitrogen by eating the plants(or animals that eat the plants!)
Nitrification
・Like other elements in the bodies of organism, nitrogen is returned to the ecosystem through animal wasted and dead organisms.
・Percomposers break down the waste and dead materials with ammonia being one of the products.
・Ammonia may be used directly by some types of plants as a soucce of nitrogen.
・Ammonia may be converted vack into nitrotes by nitrifying bacteria in a process called Nitrification
・To complete the cycle, the nitrates in the soil or water may be converted bask into nitrogen gas by denitrifying bacteria in a process called denitrification.