EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -Nitrogen is fixed, or combined, in nature as nitric oxide by lightning and ultraviolet rays, but more significant amounts of nitrogen are fixed as ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates by soil microorganisms. More than 90 percent of all nitrogen fixation is effected by them.

Detailed explanation-2: -Most nitrogen fixation occurs naturally, in the soil, by bacteria. In Figure 3 (above), you can see nitrogen fixation and exchange of form occurring in the soil. Some bacteria attach to plant roots and have a symbiotic (beneficial for both the plant and the bacteria) relationship with the plant [6].

Detailed explanation-3: -Nitrogen makes up 78 per cent of the air we breathe, and it’s thought that most of it was initially trapped in the chunks of primordial rubble that formed the Earth. When they smashed together, they coalesced and their nitrogen content has been seeping out along the molten cracks in the planet’s crust ever since.

Detailed explanation-4: -Nitrogen fixation by lightning occurs in the atmosphere when high energy bolts cause the diatomic atoms to separate then recombine with oxygen atoms. The industrial method of nitrogen fixation occurs in the laboratory where atmospheric nitrogen is fixed as ammonia by the Haber-Bosch process to produce fertilizer.