Human activity has affected every aspect of the nitrogen cycle. List the ways that humans have altered nitrogen content starting with how nitrogen becomes available to producers, where it goes, and what impacts it has
What are the ecological concerns regarding the dramatic changes people have made in the global nitrogen cycle?
Humans have spent a great deal of money on producing and distributing nitrogen and have doubled the amount of nitrogen available for use by plants. The Haber-Bosch process allows us to fix nitrogen into usable molecules. We have increased the amount of nitrogen that makes its way into waterways, mostly as runoff from fertilizer. This has caused alterations in terrestrial community composition and eutrophication in water systems. We have also increased the distribution of nitrogen through atmospheric pollution, primarily from nitrogen oxides resulting from burning fossil fuels, that then comes down as acid rain. Concerns include climate change through increased concentrations of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas, depleted nutrients from soils, eutrophication of surface waters, and acidified surface water and soils.
You might also like to view...
Compare a hurricane's eye to its eyewall
Which isotope of oxygen is most likely to be a positron emitter?
A) 15O B) 16O C) 17O D) 19O
A population of quail lives in an area of prairie grasslands. In good years, a pair of quail can have four clutches of young, with as many as 12 to 14 eggs in each clutch. Despite this, the population size remains stable over the long term. Discuss the
population structure, its potential for growth, and its possible limiting factors, using at least four of the terms you learned in this chapter. What will be an ideal response?
The word "environment" as used in environmental science does not include
A. Our culture B. understanding relationships between organisms C. Solutions to problems D. Our political system E. The biosphere