Science · 6 pages · 12 min

Why nitrogen is abundant and still scarce to plants

The air is mostly nitrogen gas, and most plants still cannot use that gas.

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From the opening

The air is mostly nitrogen gas, yet most plants cannot use that gas as a nutrient. They need nitrogen already built into forms such as ammonium or nitrate, and those forms are scarce in soil compared with the store of nitrogen overhead. The opening covers nitrogen gas versus nitrate, why the triple bond matters, and how the usable pool is lost.

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Inside

Nitrogen gas versus nitrate
Why the triple bond matters
How the usable pool is lost
When the partnership changes access
Where the idea stops applying
A distinction worth keeping

Sources

Biological unavailability of atmospheric nitrogen gas
Ammonium and nitrate as the forms roots take up

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Why nitrogen is abundant and still scarce to plants

From the opening

Inside

Sources

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