The nitrogen cycle | Chemistry for all | FuseSchool

Nitrogen makes up 78% of the air, however neither plants nor animals can take nitrogen directly from the air because nitrogen is so unreactive. The nitrogen cycles shows the movement of nitrogen through the environment. Nitrogen is continually cycled through the air, soil and living things. Plants take up nitrogen compounds as nitrates from the soil. Animals then eat these plants, thus getting their nitrogen. The process of nitrogen in the atmosphere being turned into nitrogen in the soils is called fixing. There are different ways that nitrogen is 'fixed; including nitrogen fixing bacteria in the soil which turns nitrogen from the air into nitrates. Decomposers in the soils break down animal excretion and dead organisms, returning nitrogen back to the soil as ammonia. Lightning can cause chemical reactions in the atmosphere, resulting in nitrogen reacting with oxygen to produce nitrous oxide. Burning fossil fuels also adds nitrous oxide to the atmosphere, resulting in nitric acid, but this is of course not a natural way of nitrogen fixing. Blue-green algae in the ocean also can fix nitrogen. This then provides sources of nitrogen to aquatic animals, and the nitrogen goes around a similar cycle to what happens on land. The Haber Process makes up approximately 30% of nitrogen fixing. Denitrifying bacteria in the soil break down nitrates and return nitrogen back to the air. This reduces the fertility of the soil. SUBSCRIBE to the Fuse School YouTube channel for many more educational videos. Our teachers and animators come together to make fun & easy-to-understand videos in Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Maths & ICT. JOIN our platform at www.fuseschool.org This video is part of 'Chemistry for All' - a Chemistry Education project by our Charity Fuse Foundation - the organisation behind FuseSchool. These videos can be used in a flipped classroom model or as a revision aid. Find our other Chemistry videos here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW0gavSzhMlReKGMVfUt6YuNQsO0bqSMV Twitter: https://twitter.com/fuseSchool Access a deeper Learning Experience in the Fuse School platform and app: www.fuseschool.org Follow us: http://www.youtube.com/fuseschool Friend us: http://www.facebook.com/fuseschool This Open Educational Resource is free of charge, under a Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial CC BY-NC ( View License Deed: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ). You are allowed to download the video for nonprofit, educational use. If you would like to modify the video, please contact us: [email protected]