The Significance Of Nitrogen

Nitrogen constitutes 78% of the Earth’s atmosphere and inevitably occupies a predominant role in marine and terrestrial nutrient biogeochemistry and the global climate. Callous human activities, like the excessive industrial nitrogen fixation and the incessant burning of fossil fuels, have caused a massive acceleration of the nitrogen cycle, which has, in turn, led to an increasing trend in eutrophication, smog formation, acid rain, and emission of nitrous oxide, which is a potent greenhouse gas, 300 times more powerful in warming the Earth’s atmosphere than carbon dioxide. This book comprehensively reviews the biotransformation of nitrogen, its ecological significance and the consequences of human interference. It will appeal to environmentalists, ecologists, marine biologists, and microbiologists worldwide, and will serve as a valuable guide to graduates, post-graduates, research scholars, scientists, and professors.

Nitrogen in the Marine Environment provides information pertinent to the many aspects of the nitrogen cycle. This book presents the advances in ocean productivity research, with emphasis on the role of microbes in nitrogen transformations with excursions to higher trophic levels. Organized into 24 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the abundance and distribution of the various forms of nitrogen in a number of estuaries. This text then provides a comparison of the nitrogen cycling of various ecosystems within the marine environment. Other chapters consider chemical distributions and methodology as an aid to those entering the field. This book discusses as well the enzymology of the initial steps of inorganic nitrogen assimilation. The final chapter deals with the philosophy and application of modeling as an investigative method in basic research on nitrogen dynamics in coastal and open-ocean marine environments. This book is a valuable resource for plant biochemists, microbiologists, aquatic ecologists, and bacteriologists.

Nitrogen in the Environment: Sources, Problems, and Management is the first volume to provide a holistic perspective and comprehensive treatment of nitrogen from field, to ecosystem, to treatment of urban and rural drinking water supplies, while also including a historical overview, human health impacts and policy considerations. It provides a worldwide perspective on nitrogen and agriculture. Nitrogen is one of the most critical elements required in agricultural systems for the production of crops for feed, food and fiber. The ever-increasing world population requires increasing use of nitrogen in agriculture to supply human needs for dietary protein. Worldwide demand for nitrogen will increase as a direct response to increasing population. Strategies and perspectives are considered to improve nitrogen-use efficiency. Issues of nitrogen in crop and human nutrition, and transport and transformations along the continuum from farm field to ground water, watersheds, streams, rivers, and coastal marine environments are discussed. Described are aerial transport of nitrogen from livestock and agricultural systems and the potential for deposition and impacts. The current status of nitrogen in the environment in selected terrestrial and coastal environments and crop and forest ecosystems and development of emerging technologies to minimize nitrogen impacts on the environment are addressed. The nitrogen cycle provides a framework for assessing broad scale or even global strategies to improve nitrogen use efficiency. Growing human populations are the driving force that requires increased nitrogen inputs. These increasing inputs into the food-production system directly result in increased livestock and human-excretory nitrogen contribution into the environment. The scope of this book is diverse, covering a range of topics and issues from furthering our understanding of nitrogen in the environment to policy considerations at both farm and national scales.

Presenting the first continental-scale assessment of reactive nitrogen in the environment, this book sets the related environmental problems in context by providing a multidisciplinary introduction to the nitrogen cycle processes. Issues of upscaling from farm plot and city to national and continental scales are addressed in detail with emphasis on opportunities for better management at local to global levels. The five key societal threats posed by reactive nitrogen are assessed, providing a framework for joined-up management of the nitrogen cycle in Europe, including the first cost-benefit analysis for different reactive nitrogen forms and future scenarios. Incorporating comprehensive maps, a handy technical synopsis and a summary for policy makers, this landmark volume is an essential reference for academic researchers across a wide range of disciplines, as well as stakeholders and policy makers. It is also a valuable tool in communicating the key environmental issues and future challenges to the wider public.

The process of converting atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia and other nitrogenous compounds in soil is termed as nitrogen fixation. Most of the biological nitrogen is fixed by prokaryotic bacteria. A few of these are cyanobacteria, azotobacter, azospirillum, rhizobium and bradyrhizobium. Clover, soybean, peanut, etc., are some of the plants which help in nitrogen fixation process. These processes are part of the nitrogen cycle. They are of utmost significance in agriculture as nitrogen is required for the synthesis of various organic compounds like amino acids, nucleic acids and proteins. Nitrogen is also fixed by natural phenomenon such as lightning. It is also responsible for the formation of nitrogen oxides which may react with water to form nitrous acid or nitric acid. The acids seep into the soil where they are converted into nitrates. This book includes some of the vital pieces of work being conducted across the world, on various topics related to nitrogen fixation. From theories to research to practical applications, case studies related to all contemporary topics of relevance to this field have been included in it. This book is a vital tool for all researching or studying the biological and ecological aspects of nitrogen fixation as it gives incredible insights into emerging trends and concepts.

Nitrogen is arguably the most important nutrient required by plants. However, the availability of nitrogen is limited in many soils and although the earth's atmosphere consists of 78.1% nitrogen gas (N2) plants are unable to use this form of nitrogen. To compensate , modern agriculture has been highly reliant on industrial nitrogen fertilizers to achieve maximum crop productivity. However, a great deal of fossil fuel is required for the production and delivery of nitrogen fertilizer. Moreover carbon dioxide (CO2) which is released during fossil fuel combustion contributes to the greenhouse effect and run off of nitrate leads to eutrophication of the waterways. Biological nitrogen fixation is an alternative to nitrogen fertilizer. It is carried out by prokaryotes using an enzyme complex called nitrogenase and results in atmospheric N2 being reduced into a form of nitrogen diazotrophic organisms and plants are able to use (ammonia). It is this process and its major players which will be discussed in this book. Biological Nitrogen Fixation is a comprehensive two volume work bringing together both review and original research articles on key topics in nitrogen fixation. Chapters across both volumes emphasize molecular techniques and advanced biochemical analysis approaches applicable to various aspects of biological nitrogen fixation. Volume 1 explores the chemistry and biochemistry of nitrogenases, nif gene regulation, the taxonomy, evolution, and genomics of nitrogen fixing organisms, as well as their physiology and metabolism. Volume 2 covers the symbiotic interaction of nitrogen fixing organisms with their host plants, including nodulation and symbiotic nitrogen fixation, plant and microbial "omics", cyanobacteria, diazotrophs and non-legumes, field studies and inoculum preparation, as well as nitrogen fixation and cereals. Covering the full breadth of current nitrogen fixation research and expanding it towards future advances in the field, Biological Nitrogen Fixation will be a one-stop reference for microbial ecologists and environmental microbiologists as well as plant and agricultural researchers working on crop sustainability.