4 ms·

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/05/plants-repeatedly-got-rid-of-their-ability-to-obtain-their-own-nitrogen/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/05/plants-

by novia 8y ago

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/05/plants-repeatedly-got-rid-of-their-ability-to-obtain-their-own-nitrogen/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/05/plants-repeatedly-go... So, yes, it is an energy intensive, demanding process, but we NEED to make the corn plants do it. Every plant would rather pass the buck to another plant species (or our species) and not have to deal with the trouble of making their own nitrogen. But when we provide nitrogen, in the form of fertilizer, for the plants, the environmental impact is immense. The fertilizer washes off into the nearby stagnant bodies of water, creating huge algal blooms that can suffocate whatever was trying to live in that water. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algal_bloom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algal_bloom

raverbashing 8y ago
I'm thinking Algal Blooms could be a potential solution to carbon sequestration
- chicob 8y ago
  If one buries them afterwards. If not, they will eventually die, rot and release the carbon back to the atmosphere. But eutrophication has other issues: it is harmful for animal life and it unbalances the ecosystem, degrading biodiversity and overall making natural carbon sequestration poorer. Maybe in a controlled setting, one could use a dragnet to harvest algae and use it for fertilization. That would certainly improve the efficiency of nitrogen usage.
- infogulch 8y ago
  Agreed, but we need a bit more control of them than "dump nitrogen into bodies of water that happen to be nearby farmland".
- Reason077 8y ago
  Phytoplankton are basically algae, and they’re a huge natural carbon sink when they die and fall to the bottom of the ocean. It’s just that we’re overwhelming this sequestration mechanism by digging up and burning dead phytoplankton much faster than new ones grow to replace them.
- dredmorbius 8y ago
  Possibly. Wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems anywhere, and might sequester substantial biomass. A freshwater pond plant, eeffectively, may be responsible for an earlier global cooling period due to carbon sequestration.
stinos 8y ago
The algal bloom is only part of the problem. Another big one is that due to the large amounts of nitrogen (and other) deposition plants which thirve on it (common grasses, nettles to name some common ones) can grow fast hereby taking away space and light of the slower growing species (herb-like species, typical flowering species found in meadows for instance). The result, after years and years, is extremely detrimental to biodiversity: some of the species are nearing extinction, sometimes together with the insects whos lifecycle depends on solely those species.
- lostlogin 8y ago
  Dairy farming can be terrible for nitrogen runoff too. It’s a massive problem in NZ and between farming and urbanisation we have badly damaged a large portion of our waterways. https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/77058/2_12_Davie-Colley.pdf https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/00...
  - stinos 8y ago
    Yup. And there's industry/combustion engines as well. All happily releasing nitrogen in one form or another. It's sad that a lot of nature conservation organizations' work is simply just mowing/removing mowed substance/repeat and then after a years of countering the influence of nitrogen they get a meadow which looks sort of 'natural', i.e. typical vegetation for specific type of soil which used to be common decades ago. And beautiful too. On a related note: where I live a millimetered lawn without any kind of plant which isn't grass still seems to be considered the summum of gardening. But as far as nature and biodiversity goes it's almost as dead as concrete. Still a lot which could be gained in those areas as well.

by novia 8y ago

raverbashing 8y ago

I'm thinking Algal Blooms could be a potential solution to carbon sequestration

chicob 8y ago
If one buries them afterwards. If not, they will eventually die, rot and release the carbon back to the atmosphere. But eutrophication has other issues: it is harmful for animal life and it unbalances the ecosystem, degrading biodiversity and overall making natural carbon sequestration poorer. Maybe in a controlled setting, one could use a dragnet to harvest algae and use it for fertilization. That would certainly improve the efficiency of nitrogen usage.
infogulch 8y ago
Agreed, but we need a bit more control of them than "dump nitrogen into bodies of water that happen to be nearby farmland".
Reason077 8y ago
Phytoplankton are basically algae, and they’re a huge natural carbon sink when they die and fall to the bottom of the ocean. It’s just that we’re overwhelming this sequestration mechanism by digging up and burning dead phytoplankton much faster than new ones grow to replace them.
dredmorbius 8y ago
Possibly. Wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems anywhere, and might sequester substantial biomass. A freshwater pond plant, eeffectively, may be responsible for an earlier global cooling period due to carbon sequestration.

stinos 8y ago

The algal bloom is only part of the problem. Another big one is that due to the large amounts of nitrogen (and other) deposition plants which thirve on it (common grasses, nettles to name some common ones) can grow fast hereby taking away space and light of the slower growing species (herb-like species, typical flowering species found in meadows for instance). The result, after years and years, is extremely detrimental to biodiversity: some of the species are nearing extinction, sometimes together with the insects whos lifecycle depends on solely those species.

lostlogin 8y ago
Dairy farming can be terrible for nitrogen runoff too. It’s a massive problem in NZ and between farming and urbanisation we have badly damaged a large portion of our waterways. https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/77058/2_12_Davie-Colley.pdf https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/00...
- stinos 8y ago
  Yup. And there's industry/combustion engines as well. All happily releasing nitrogen in one form or another. It's sad that a lot of nature conservation organizations' work is simply just mowing/removing mowed substance/repeat and then after a years of countering the influence of nitrogen they get a meadow which looks sort of 'natural', i.e. typical vegetation for specific type of soil which used to be common decades ago. And beautiful too. On a related note: where I live a millimetered lawn without any kind of plant which isn't grass still seems to be considered the summum of gardening. But as far as nature and biodiversity goes it's almost as dead as concrete. Still a lot which could be gained in those areas as well.