Impacting the Nitrogen Cycle
In this paper, I will be examining the nitrogen cycle and my personal impact on it. Firstly, I will briefly discuss the cycle of nitrogen in the biosphere and its importance to all living organisms. Secondly, I will be examining my personal involvement in the nitrogen cycle and the impact those actions have. Then, I will be looking at ways that my actions can be altered to benefit the environment and reduce my negative impact on the ecosystem. Finally, I will attempt to answer the question of, how difficult it is to balance my personal life choices with the needs of the environment? Nitrogen is an essential element in living things, it is directly involved in the formulation of amino acids needed to produce …show more content…
Despite the prevalence of nitrogen in the atmosphere neither animals nor plants can acquire it directly, but must rely on the assistance of prokaryotes, free-living and symbiotic bacteria, able to fix nitrogen and transform it into a useful element. Cyanobacteria in aquatic systems, azotobacter in the soil and Rhizobium bacteria that lives symbiotically at the roots of leguminous plants, all draw nitrogen from the atmosphere and transform it into ammonia, (NH3), or nitrate, (NO3), important nutrients for plant growth (Bear et al, 2013). Plants metabolize the ammonia and nitrate into protein, which in turn is consumed by animals and turned into animal protein (Lamb, Fernandez, & Kaiser, …show more content…
Whether the nitrogen originates from a synthetic source or a natural one makes no difference on the impact it has on the ecosystem. When rate limiting nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, are introduced into the streams and rivers, the potential for ecological disaster occurs, it can cause europhication. Algae, finding conditions ideal for growth reproduce an amounts un sustainable for the ecosystems supporting them. The algae blooms are so prolific that they block-out the sun from photosynthetic plants below the surface. Once the algae begins to die, sink to the bottom and begin to decompose, the oxygen is depleted in the water. The result is a dead zone that cannot support a diverse population of plants and fish (Khan Academy,
In this paper, I will be examining the nitrogen cycle and my personal impact on it. Firstly, I will briefly discuss the cycle of nitrogen in the biosphere and its importance to all living organisms. Secondly, I will be examining my personal involvement in the nitrogen cycle and the impact those actions have. Then, I will be looking at ways that my actions can be altered to benefit the environment and reduce my negative impact on the ecosystem. Finally, I will attempt to answer the question of, how difficult it is to balance my personal life choices with the needs of the environment? Nitrogen is an essential element in living things, it is directly involved in the formulation of amino acids needed to produce …show more content…
Despite the prevalence of nitrogen in the atmosphere neither animals nor plants can acquire it directly, but must rely on the assistance of prokaryotes, free-living and symbiotic bacteria, able to fix nitrogen and transform it into a useful element. Cyanobacteria in aquatic systems, azotobacter in the soil and Rhizobium bacteria that lives symbiotically at the roots of leguminous plants, all draw nitrogen from the atmosphere and transform it into ammonia, (NH3), or nitrate, (NO3), important nutrients for plant growth (Bear et al, 2013). Plants metabolize the ammonia and nitrate into protein, which in turn is consumed by animals and turned into animal protein (Lamb, Fernandez, & Kaiser, …show more content…
Whether the nitrogen originates from a synthetic source or a natural one makes no difference on the impact it has on the ecosystem. When rate limiting nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, are introduced into the streams and rivers, the potential for ecological disaster occurs, it can cause europhication. Algae, finding conditions ideal for growth reproduce an amounts un sustainable for the ecosystems supporting them. The algae blooms are so prolific that they block-out the sun from photosynthetic plants below the surface. Once the algae begins to die, sink to the bottom and begin to decompose, the oxygen is depleted in the water. The result is a dead zone that cannot support a diverse population of plants and fish (Khan Academy,