Each part of the cycle
This is a biological process where microorganisms decompose organic matter and nitrogenous waste from dead organisms and animal waste, converting it into inorganic ammonia
ammonification
Nitrogen is a fundamental component of DNA, RNA, proteins, and chlorophyll, which plants need to perform this natural process.
Photosynthesis
This material helps plants grow by doubling the natural rate of nitrogen fixation.
Fertilizer
Human activities contribute to the release of nitrous oxide a potent blank that is approximately 300 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide
greenhouse gass
Intense energy from what atmospereic storm can also convert nitrogen into ammonia and nitrates
Lightning
This is the biological oxidation of ammonia into nitrite and then into nitrate by specific soil bacteria
Nitrification
Plants need nitrogen to build this pigment, crucial for photosynthesis.
These cultivating crops, like soybeans and pea,s contain symbiotic bacteria that increase available nitrogen in the soil.
Nitrogen-Fixing Crops
blank types of runoff from fertilized lawns and pet waste carries nitrogen into storm drains and ultimately into local water bodies, contributing to the overall reactive nitrogen load in aquatic ecosystems
Urban and suburban
where is most of our nitrogen found? (78% of it)
The air
This is the process where plants take up inorganic nitrogen, primarily in the form of nitrates or ammonium, from the soil and use it to synthesize organic molecules like amino acids and nucleic acids.
Assimilation
The nitrogen cycle transfers nitrogen through this complex process as animals consume plants and other organisms.
Food Web
This type of management transfers already-fixed nitrogen by applying manure from livestock to agricultural fields.
Manure Management
particularly open-pit blanks=, introduce nitrogen into the environment through the use of ammonium nitrate-based explosives
mining
These microorganisms convert nitrogen gas into ammonia, which plants can absorb
Specialized bacteria and archaea
This process atmospheric nitrogen gas into reactive compounds like ammonia or nitrates, which plants can absorb to grow.
Nitrogen Fixation
Why is nitrogen a critical element in nature?
Creates the essential biological molecules that sustain all living organisms.
This damaging process releases nitrogen oxides through power plants and vehicles, contributing to air pollution and climate change.
Fossil Fuel Combustion
The widespread planting of what kind of crops such as soybeans, peanuts, and alfalfa, has significantly increased the rate of biological nitrogen fixation on a global scale.
nitrogen-fixing crops
The mass emergence of what inscect can deliver a huge pulse of nitrogen to the ecosystem when their bodies decompose
Cicadas
This microbial process, typically by bacteria in anaerobic environments, that converts nitrate and nitrite into gaseous forms of nitrogen, releasing them into the atmosphere.
Denitrification
How does the nitrogen cycle help maintain the balance of nutrients necessary for healthy ecosystems?
By regulating the flow and transformation of nitrogen.
This process reduces the amount of vegetation available to absorb nitrogen from the soil by cutting down trees.
Deforestation
the clearing of forests and grasslands for agriculture or the burning of crop residues, releases significant quantities of nitrogen compounds into the atmosphere.
biomass burning
Studies in the Pacific Northwest have shown that when these fish swim upstream to spawn, they carry nitrogen from the marine ecosystem to the boreal forests. Bears and other predators drag the fish carcasses into the woods, and the decomposing salmon act as a fertilizer for the trees.
Salmon