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To mitigate these environmental impacts, various nitrogen management strategies are employed in agriculture. Soil testing is an essential practice that helps farmers assess the nutrient status of their soils and determine appropriate fertilizer application rates. Nutrient management plans based on soil test results help optimize fertilizer use ...
Nitrogen may also be leached from the vadose zone if in the form of nitrate, acting as a pollutant if it reaches the water table or flows over land, more especially in agricultural soils under high use of nutrient fertilizers. [45] Ammonium may also be sequestered in 2:1 clay minerals. [46]
As nitrogen naturally cycles through the air, water and soil it undergoes various chemical and biological transformations. Nitrogen promotes plant growth. Livestock then eat the crops producing manure, which is returned to the soil, adding organic and mineral forms of nitrogen. The cycle is complete when the next crop uses the amended soil. [1]
Phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizers can affect soil, surface water, and groundwater due to the dispersion of minerals [47] into waterways due to high rainfall, [65] [66] snowmelt and can leaching into groundwater over time. [67] Agricultural run-off is a major contributor to the eutrophication of freshwater bodies.
Nitrogen is plentiful in the Earth's atmosphere, and a number of commercially-important agricultural plants engage in nitrogen fixation (conversion of atmospheric nitrogen to a biologically useful form). However, plants mostly receive their nitrogen through the soil, where it is already converted in biological useful form.
Human impact on the nitrogen cycle is diverse. Agricultural and industrial nitrogen (N) inputs to the environment currently exceed inputs from natural N fixation. [1] As a consequence of anthropogenic inputs, the global nitrogen cycle (Fig. 1) has been significantly altered over the past century.
Whether nitrogen is mineralized or immobilized depends on the C/N ratio of the plant residues. [6] For example, incorporating materials high in carbon to nitrogen ratio such as saw dust and straw will stimulate soil microbial activity, increase demand for nitrogen, leading to immobilization. [7] This is known as priming effect. [8]
Nitrogen deficiency is a deficiency of nitrogen in plants. This can occur when organic matter with high carbon content, such as sawdust, is added to soil. [1] Soil organisms use any nitrogen available to break down carbon sources, making nitrogen unavailable to plants. [1] This is known as "robbing" the soil of nitrogen.