Nitrogen Cycle

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Nitrogen is essential for many processes; it is crucial for any life on Earth. It is in all amino acids, is incorporated into proteins, and is present in the bases that make up nucleic acids, such as DNA and RNA. In plants, much of the nitrogen is used in chlorophyll molecules, which are essential for photosynthesis and further growth. Although earth's atmosphere is an abundant source of nitrogen, most is relatively unusable by plants. Chemical processing, or natural fixation (through processes such as bacterial conversion--see rhizobium), is necessary to convert gaseous nitrogen into forms usable by living organisms. This makes nitrogen a crucial part of food production. The abundance or scarcity of this "fixed" form of nitrogen, (also known as reactive nitrogen), dictates how much food can be grown on a piece of land.