Q5. Plants need nitrogen to make proteins. Can they absorb nitrogen from the atmosphere? Justify ! Please answer in detail
Answers
Answer:
Nope.
It's actually a fascinating thing, because the atmosphere is mostly made of nitrogen, but nitrogen gas is locked into it's current form, and it's pretty tricky, chemically speaking, to break it up into usable forms. Plants aren't up to the task, but luckily, micro-organisms that live in the soil are. They convert the nitrogen into other forms, and the plants consume those. That's one of the reasons why soil health is actually a really big deal. If the soil doesn't have the right mix of organisms, plants can't really grow there.
The thing is, though, about a century ago, we figured out how to convert atmospheric nitrogen into usable chemicals artificially. That's where nitrogen-based fertilizers come from. The basic process is known as the Haber-Bosch process, and it's a huge and fundamentally important industrial method. It's estimated that, if you live in an industrialized country, probably half of the nitrogen in your body comes from the Haber-Bosch process, because it's so fundamental in producing the food we eat.
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Explanation:
Answer:
Explanation:
Plants do not get their nitrogen directly from the air. Although nitrogen is the most abundant element in the air, every nitrogen atom in the air is triple-bonded to another nitrogen atom to form molecular nitrogen, N2. This triple bond is very strong and very hard to break (it takes energy to break chemical bonds whereas energy is only released when bonds are formed). As a result, even though nitrogen in the air is very common, it is energetically unfavorable for a plant to split the nitrogen molecule in order to get the raw atoms that it can use. The strong triple bond of N2 also makes it hard for molecular nitrogen to react with most other chemicals. This is, in fact, part of the reason there is so much nitrogen in the air to begin with. Also, the stability and symmetry of the nitrogen molecule makes it hard for different nitrogen molecules to bind to each other. This property means that molecular nitrogen can be cooled to very low temperatures before becoming liquid, leading liquid nitrogen to be a very effective cryogenic liquid.
The act of breaking apart the two atoms in a nitrogen molecule is called "nitrogen fixation". Plants get the nitrogen that they need from the soil, where it has already been fixed by bacteria and archaea. Bacteria and archaea in the soil and in the roots of some plants have the ability to convert molecular nitrogen from the air (N2) to ammonia (NH3), thereby breaking the tough triple bond of molecular nitrogen. Such organisms are called "diazotrophs". From here, various microorganisms convert ammonia to other nitrogen compounds that are easier for plants to use. In this way, plants get their nitrogen indirectly from the air via microorganisms in the soil and in certain plant roots. Note that lightning and high-energy solar radiation can also split the nitrogen molecule, and therefore also fixes the nitrogen in the air. However, the amount of nitrogen fixed by lightning and solar radiation is insignificant compared to the amount fixed by diazotrophs in the soil and in roots. In his book Nitrogen Fixation, John Postgate states,
The fixation of nitrogen – the conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into a form that plants can use – is a process fundamental to world agriculture. It comes about as a consequence of spontaneous, anthropogenic and biological activities. The existence and importance of the biological component have been recognized for more than a century, but scientific advances over the past few decades have radically altered our understanding of its nature and mechanisms.