Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant (vegetative) growth. (quality and yield) Nitrogen is important because it is the building blocks for proteins, nucleic acids and it is also a component of chlorophyll and required for several enzyme reactions.
Even though there is an abundance of nitrogen around, and air is made up of approximately 79% very little of this is available to plants. Most of this nitrogen has to be fixed by micro-organisms before it can be used by forms of life. Manufacturing Nitrogen fertilizers is one way of making it available to other life forms.
Because Nitrogen is such an important element for plants it needs to be managed well, otherwise it could and can lead to environmental problems.
Even though the nitrogen applied to land is generally taken up my plants. Livestock wastes return a considerable amount to the soil. Nitrate (NO3)forms from this waste and because this soluble it easily drains (leaches) into the streams and rivers nearby before the plants can absorb it all. This in turn affects ecosystems.
“Of the total nitrogen applied in 2012, an estimated 137 million kilograms leached from the soil. Only 19 percent of the loss was directly from fertiliser; the remainder was through livestock waste.”Trends in nitrogen leaching from agriculture
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