The Nitrogen cycle

 The Nitrogen cycle

Assalamu ‘Alaikum wr. Wb. Salam sejahtera bagi kita semua, oke sobat nah kali ini saya akan memaparkan siklus dari nitrogen, oke sobat selamat membacanya.

                                   

The Nitrogen Cycle

Nitrogen is the most abundant element in the atmosphere (~78%). However, gaseous nitrogen must be 'fixed' into another form so that it can be used by living organisme.

Take a deep breath. Most of what you just inhaled is nitrogen. In fact, 80% of the air in our atmosphere is made of nitrogen. Your body does not use the nitrogen that you inhale with each breath. But, like all living things, your body needs nitrogen. Your body gets the nitrogen it needs to grow from food.

Most plants get the nitrogen they need from soil. Many farmers use fertilizers to add nitrogen to the soil to help plants grow larger and faster. Both nitrogen fertilizers and forest fires add huge amounts of nitrogen into the soil and nearby lakes and rivers. Water full of nitrogen causes plants and algae to grow very fast and then die all at once when there are too many for the environment to support.

Nitrogen is used by lifeforms to carry out many of the functions of life. This element is especially important to plant life. Yet, nitrogen in its gaseous form is almost entirely unusable to lifeforms. It must first be converted or ‘fixed’ into a more usable form. The process of converting nitrogen is called fixation.

There are specialized bacteria whose function it is to fix nitrogen, converting it, so that it can be used by plants. There are still other bacteria who do the reverse. That is, they return nitrogen to is gaseous form.

After nitrogen is fixed, it can be absorbed and used by plants, and subsequently by animals.

The process of nitrogen being fixed, used by plants and animals, and later returned to the atmosphere is referred to as the nitrogen cycle.