When Organisms Decompose.docx

When organisms decompose, they put nitrogen into the soil on land or into the water in our oceans. ... The nitrogen cycles through the land ecosystem is by the nitrogen in the atmosphere goes to bacteria in the soil. Then the bacteria canconvert into ammonia, nitrogen fixation, to nitrate which the plants can use. When an organism excretes waste or dies, the nitrogen in its tissues is in the form of organic nitrogen (e.g. amino acids, DNA). Various fungi and prokaryotes then decompose the tissue and release inorganic nitrogen back into the ecosystem as ammonia in the process known as ammonification. Nitrogen gas (N2) from the atmosphere dissolves into seawater at the ocean surface. ... Dissolved nitrogen gas is taken up by just a few types microbes, which convert the nitrogen into a much more useable form, known as ammonium (NH4+). This process, known as “nitrogen fixation,” is vitally important. The burning of fossil fuels from various industrial processes adds nitrogen and nitrous oxide compounds to the atmosphere, which upsets the balance of natural nitrogen, polluting ecosystemsand altering the ecology of entire regions. ... This upset in the balance of the nitrogen cycle affectsbiological diversity. Scientists have determined that humans are disrupting the nitrogen cycle by altering the amount of nitrogen that is stored in the biosphere. The chief culprit is fossil fuel combustion, which releases nitric oxides into the air that combine with other elements to form smog and acid rain.