Nitrogen, how much of you do we need?

We need nitrogen, point blank. Whether it is for our crops or in our DNA- Nitrogen holds a large responsibility of our human being. If you think about it in general terms, limited nitrogen will limit out production-which will solely lead to a limited population. This cycle would be lethal. Nitrogen cycle rapidly because air is full of it, however the cycling greatly depends on how much access we have to the element. Nitrogen takes up a large part of our atmosphere- and many species depends upon it. We are lucky enough to know that living bacteria is able to fix our source of nitrogen into nitrates. This fixed nitrogen is then able to be taken up by the plants in our society and in turn useful to our animals. Generally speaking, the production of nitrogen allows our atmosphere to sustain itself. However, based on Smils reading- experimenting with the amounts of nitrogen skewed what we know about nitrogen. Farmers were seeing that some of the nitrogen that was being taking in by plants was not completely cycling back into the atmosphere. This is a severe issue to us as a society because if the soil is depleted, we will be unable to produce the agriculture that we need to sustain living. However, scientist developed theories of legumes and sources of manure. Without the help of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, or the help of recycling nitrogen, we would not be able to sustain agriculture. By growing legumes, we can fix nitrogen and have it be a large part of the soil. Scientists from early times have theorized methods of legumes and bacteria.

Researched were able to show that legumes were capable of restoring the nitrogen to the soil- however, it also led them to the conclusion that plants did not associate with any nitrogen given off from the atmosphere. The theories of manure believed that there was a fixed amount of stored nitrogen in the soil- which can then be recycled. Different countries have different various theories of the use of fixed nitrogen and legumes a main source. However, regardless of the countries procedure, a large amount of the sources will always be needed to maintain the soil production. The levels of agriculture vary between the east and western countries because of the various nitrogen productions. These differences may be caused by changes in precipitation, soil erosion and plan and simple- the availability of resources. The shift in overall cultivation can change the overall amount of people that are being bed fed per region. Without the process of nitrogen, the cycle will not be maintained considering how much nitrogen is being over consumed. Therefore, the progress in using nitrogen fertilizer has helped begin to feed people worldwide. The real issue is how much should we use? Where do we really need it? Is too much, too much? Will using less greatly affect us? How will it affect us? Overall, scientists have attempted to establish ways to figure out the pros and cons of the synthetic nitrogen fertilizer that we greatly depend on as Americans. We don’t realize how much nitrogen is used for in our society. Most people wouldn’t know that it is used in iron and steel production, as well as the petroleum industries. However based on Haber’s process we are able to use ammonia as a severe catalyst in this major production of synthetic fertilizers.

Another important issue which cannot be ignored is Eutrophication. What is it? It is when there is an increase in concentration of chemicals in the ecosystem. This process greatly affects the water and the fish populations. However, it can also greatly affect the animals in our wildlife. The process should be concentrated on the “underground life-the fishes”. The excess run off has begun to pollute the water- which is leading to a depletion of our animals. Although Eutrophication may be a natural process that may occur during floods- it is still occurring at an increasing level. But nutrients are not the only thing killing the fish. The fisherman are partly blame too. Areas like Georges Bank are nutrient rich on the submarine floor. This area used to be one of the most productive areas for fishing in the world. However, electric finders were depleting the source of the fish. The fisherman obviously need to stay in business- however it is not fair if too many fisherman are going out to see and there is no control or maximum limitations to the amount of fish which are being taking out. There should at least be a way to sustain the ecosystem and avoid fisherman’s greed. If you think about the entire concept in the long run. Limiting the consumption of fish, would increase farm agriculture because more people would relay more crops. This would then lead to fisherman losing their jobs. A severe change in diet would occur because there would not be enough protein for some people to survive. However, America is not greatly dependant on fish. Major countries around and surround Asia are greatly dependent on the consumption of fish products.