nitrogen cycle

n. The circulation of nitrogen in nature, consisting of a cycle of chemical reactions in which nitrogen from the atmosphere is fixed in compounds in soil or water, assimilated by plants and animals, released to the soil and water through decomposition, and returned to the atmosphere through denitrification.

nitrogen cycle

n (Biology) the natural circulation of nitrogen by living organisms. Nitrates in the soil, derived from dead organic matter by bacterial action, are absorbed and synthesized into complex organic compounds by plants and reduced to nitrates again when the plants and the animals feeding on them die and decay. See nitrification, nitrogen fixation

ni′trogen cy`cle

n. the continuous sequence of natural processes by which nitrogen in the atmosphere and nitrogenous compounds in the soil are converted, as by nitrification and nitrogen fixation, into substances that can be utilized by green plants and then returned to the air and soil as a result of denitrification and plant decay.

nitrogen cycle

nitrogen cycle

The continuous process by which nitrogen is exchanged between organisms and the environment. Some of the atmosphere's free nitrogen combines with other elements to form compounds that are deposited in the soil. These are then converted by bacteria, in a process called nitrification, into nutrients that are absorbed by the roots of green plants. Nitrogen is then passed into the food chain and returned to the soil by the metabolism and decay of plants and animals.

nitrogen cycle

The natural circulation of nitrogen (including nitrogen compounds) from air to consuming organisms (plants, animals and bacteria) and back to air.

Thesaurus

Noun

nitrogen cycle - the circulation of nitrogen; nitrates from the soil are absorbed by plants which are eaten by animals that die and decay returning the nitrogen back to the soilbiological process, organic process - a process occurring in living organisms

nitrogen cycle

nitrogen cycle,

the continuous flow of nitrogen through the biospherebiosphere,
irregularly shaped envelope of the earth's air, water, and land encompassing the heights and depths at which living things exist. The biosphere is a closed and self-regulating system (see ecology), sustained by grand-scale cycles of energy and of materials—in
..... Click the link for more information. by the processes of nitrogen fixation, ammonification (decay), nitrification, and denitrification. Nitrogen is vital to all living matter, both plant and animal; it is an essential constituent of amino acids, which form proteins of nucleic acidsnucleic acid,
any of a group of organic substances found in the chromosomes of living cells and viruses that play a central role in the storage and replication of hereditary information and in the expression of this information through protein synthesis.
..... Click the link for more information. , and of many other organic materials.

Nitrogen Fixation

Although the earth's atmosphere is 78% nitrogen, free gaseous nitrogen cannot be utilized by animals or by higher plants. They depend instead on nitrogen that is present in the soil. To enter living systems, nitrogen must be "fixed" (combined with oxygen or hydrogen) into compounds that plants can utilize, such as nitrates or ammonia. A certain amount of atmospheric nitrogen is fixed by lightning and by some cyanobacteriacyanobacteria
or blue-green algae,
photosynthetic bacteria that contain chlorophyll. For many years they were classified in the plant kingdom along with algae, but discoveries made possible by the electron microscope and new biochemical techniques have shown them to be
..... Click the link for more information. (blue-green algae). But the great bulk of nitrogen fixation is performed by soil bacteria of two kinds: those that live free in the soil and those that live enclosed in nodules in the roots of certain leguminous plants (e.g., alfalfa, peas, beans, clover, soybeans, and peanuts). Among the free-living forms are species of Clostridium, discovered c.1893 by Sergei Winogradsky, and Azotobacter, discovered c.1901 by M. W. Beijerinck. Both Clostridium and Azotobacter are generally present in agricultural soils, and both are saprophytes, i.e., they use the energy from decaying organic matter in the soil to fuel soil processes, including nitrogen fixation.

Bacteria that live in the roots of legumeslegume
, common name for any plant of the family Leguminosae, which is called also the pulse, legume, pea, or bean family. The word is often used loosely in the plural for vegetables in general.
..... Click the link for more information. are of the genus Rhizobium, first isolated c.1888 by Beijerinck. These rod-shaped bacteria enter the roots chiefly through the root hairs and then work their way to the inner root tissues. There they stimulate the growth of tumorlike nodules. Within the nodules the bacteria develop into forms called bacteroids, which live in a symbiotic (mutually beneficial) relationship with the green plant. The bacteroids take carbohydrates from the plant for energy to fix nitrogen and synthesize amino acids; the plants take the amino acids elaborated in the nodule to build plant tissue. Animals in turn consume the plants and convert plant protein into animal protein. Rhizobia can be found free-living in the soil, but they cannot fix nitrogen in the free state, nor can the legume root fix nitrogen without Rhizobia.

The exact biochemistry of nitrogen fixation within the nodule is not yet understood. It is estimated that more than 300 lbs of nitrogen per acre (340 kg per hectare) can be fixed by fields of alfalfa and other legumes. After a harvest legume roots left in the soil decay, returning organic nitrogen compounds to the soil for uptake by the next generation of plants. For this reason crop rotation in which a leguminous crop is rotated with a nonleguminous one is a common practice for maintaining soil fertility.

Other Aspects of the Nitrogen Cycle

Decomposing animal remains and animal wastes also return organic nitrogen to the soil as ammonia. Many different kinds of decay microorganisms participate in ammonification. The nitrifying bacteria of the genus Nitrosomonas oxidize the ammonia to nitrites, and Nitrobacter oxidize the nitrites to nitrates. The nitrates can then be taken up again by the green plant. The cycle of fixation-decay-nitrification-fixation can proceed indefinitely without any nitrogen being returned to a gaseous state. But still another group of microorganisms, the denitrifying bacteria, can reduce nitrates all the way to molecular nitrogen. Denitrification occurs only in the absence of oxygen and is not common in well-cultivated soils.

Effects of Artificial Fixation

Nitrogen fixation can also be accomplished artificially by various methods (see nitrogennitrogen
, gaseous chemical element; symbol N; at. no. 7; interval in which at. wt. ranges 14.00643–14.00728; m.p. −209.86&degC;; b.p. −195.8&degC;; density 1.25 grams per liter at STP; valence principally −3, +3, or +5.
..... Click the link for more information. ). Humans annually fix vast amounts of nitrogen for industrial purposes and for use as fertilizer. Unfortunately, large-scale legume cultivation and artificial fixation may be upsetting the natural nitrogen cycle in the biosphere. There is some question whether natural denitrification can keep pace with fixation. For one thing, run-off of nitrate fertilizer can cause eutrophicationeutrophication
, aging of a lake by biological enrichment of its water. In a young lake the water is cold and clear, supporting little life. With time, streams draining into the lake introduce nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which encourage the growth of aquatic
..... Click the link for more information. of lakes and streams (see water pollutionwater pollution,
contamination of water resources by harmful wastes; see also sewerage, water supply, pollution, and environmentalism. Industrial Pollution
..... Click the link for more information. ) and can foul drinking supplies. Another environmental problem is that inorganic fertilizers tend to depress legume fixation. As a consequence, root tissue remaining after harvest is poorer, and thus more fertilizer must be applied the following year.

Nitrogen cycle

The collective term given to the natural biological and chemical processes through which inorganic and organic nitrogen are interconverted. It includes the process of ammonification, ammonia assimilation, nitrification, nitrate assimilation, nitrogen fixation, and denitrification.

Diagram of the nitrogen cycle

Nitrogen exists in nature in several inorganic compounds, namely N₂, N₂O, NH₃, NO₂^-, and NO₃^-, and in several organic compounds such as amino acids, nucleotides, amino sugars, and vitamins. In the biosphere, biological and chemical reactions continually occur in which these nitrogenous compounds are converted from one form to another. These interconversions are of great importance in maintaining soil fertility and in preventing pollution of soil and water.

An outline showing the general interconversions of nitrogenous compounds in the soil-water pool is presented in the illustration. There are three primary reasons why organisms metabolize nitrogen compounds: (1) to use them as a nitrogen source, which means first converting them to NH₃, (2) to use certain nitrogen compounds as an energy source such as in the oxidation of NH₃ to NO₂^- and of NO₂^- to NO₃^-, and (3) to use certain nitrogen compounds (NO₃^-) as terminal electron acceptors under conditions where oxygen is either absent or in limited supply. The reactions and products involved in these three metabolically different pathways collectively make up the nitrogen cycle.

There are two ways in which organisms obtain ammonia. One is to use nitrogen already in a form easily metabolized to ammonia. Thus, nonviable plant, animal, and microbial residues in soil are enzymatically decomposed by a series of hydrolytic and other reactions to yield biosynthetic monomers such as amino acids and other small-molecular-weight nitrogenous compounds. These amino acids, purines, and pyrimidines are decomposed further to produce NH₃ which is then used by plants and bacteria for biosynthesis, or these biosynthetic monomers can be used directly by some microorganisms. The decomposition process is called ammonification.

The second way in which inorganic nitrogen is made available to biological agents is by nitrogen fixation (this term is maintained even though N₂ is now called dinitrogen), a process in which N₂ is reduced to NH₃. Since the vast majority of nitrogen is in the form of N₂, nitrogen fixation obviously is essential to life. The N₂-fixing process is confined to prokaryotes (certain photosynthetic and nonphotosynthetic bacteria). The major nitrogen fixers (called diazotrophs) are members of the genus Rhizobium, bacteria that are found in root nodules of leguminous plants, and of the cyanobacteria (originally called blue-green algae).

nitrogen cycle

[′nī·trə·jən ‚sī·kəl] (nuclear physics) carbon-nitrogen cycle

nitrogen cycle

the natural circulation of nitrogen by living organisms. Nitrates in the soil, derived from dead organic matter by bacterial action (see nitrification, nitrogen fixation), are absorbed and synthesized into complex organic compounds by plants and reduced to nitrates again when the plants and the animals feeding on them die and decay

nitrogen cycle

nitrogen cycle

nitrogen cycle

ni′trogen cy`cle

nitrogen cycle

nitrogen cycle

nitrogen cycle

nitrogen cycle,

Nitrogen Fixation

Other Aspects of the Nitrogen Cycle

Effects of Artificial Fixation

Nitrogen cycle

nitrogen cycle

nitrogen cycle

nitrogen cycle

ni·tro·gen cy·cle

nitrogen cycle

ni·tro·gen cy·cle

nitrogen cycle

nitrogen cycle

Words related to nitrogen cycle

noun the circulation of nitrogen

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