News tagged with nitrogen cycle

Deep-Sea Microbes May Answer Long-Standing Question About Earth's Nitrogen Cycle

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have identified an unexpected metabolic ability in a symbiotic community of deep-sea microorganisms. It may help solve a lingering mystery about the world's nitrogen cycle.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 15, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (9) | comments 1

Planet's nitrogen cycle overturned by 'tiny ammonia eater of the seas'

(PhysOrg.com) -- It's not every day you find clues to the planet's inner workings in aquarium scum. But that's what happened a few years ago when University of Washington researchers cultured a tiny organism from the bottom ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Sep 30, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (13) | comments 0

Billions of years ago, microbes were key in developing modern nitrogen cycle

(PhysOrg.com) -- As the world marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, there is much focus on evolution in animals and plants. But new research shows that for the countless billions of tiniest creatures - microbes ...

Biology /

created Feb 19, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 0

Trace element plays major role in tropical forest nitrogen cycle

A new paper by researchers from the University of Georgia and Princeton University sheds light on the critical part played by a little-studied element, molybdenum, in the nutrient cycles of tropical forests. Understanding ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Mar 22, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Team finds natural reasons behind nitrogen-rich forests

(PhysOrg.com) -- Many tropical forests are extremely rich in nitrogen even when there are no farms or industries nearby, says Montana State University researcher Jack Brookshire.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jan 16, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Tropical forests are fertilized by air pollution

Scientists braved ticks and a tiger to discover how human activities have perturbed the nitrogen cycle in tropical forests. Studies at two remote Smithsonian Institution Global Earth Observatory sites in Panama ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 03, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Researchers explore plankton's shifting role in deep sea carbon storage

The tiny phytoplankton Emiliania huxleyi, invisible to the naked eye, plays an outsized role in drawing carbon from the atmosphere and sequestering it deep in the seas. But this role may change as ocean water becomes warmer ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 13, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Bacteria forge nitrogen from nitric oxide: Scientists unravel key pathway in the nitrogen cycle

The anaerobic oxidation of ammonia (anammox) is an important pathway in the nitrogen cycle that was only discovered in the 1980s. Currently, scientists estimate that about 50 percent of the nitrogen in the atmosphere is forged ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Oct 05, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Bedrock nitrogen may help forests buffer climate change, study finds

For the first time, researchers at the University of California, Davis, have demonstrated that forest trees have the ability to tap into nitrogen found in rocks, boosting the trees' growth and their ability ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Aug 31, 2011 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Nitrogen in the soil cleans the air

Eutrophication harms the environment in many ways. Unexpectedly, nitrogen fertilizer may also be positive for the environment. And even acidic soils, promoting the destruction of forests, can have a positive ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Aug 19, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Novel microorganism 'Nitrososphaera viennensis' isolated

Microorganisms play an important role in global nutrient cycles. A research team led by Christa Schleper, head of the Department of Genetics in Ecology at the University of Vienna, has isolated the first ammonium ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Apr 25, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Ocean acidification changes nitrogen cycling in world seas

Increasing acidity in the sea's waters may fundamentally change how nitrogen is cycled in them, say marine scientists who published their findings in this week's issue of the journal Proceedings of the Na ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 20, 2010 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (8) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Declining nitrogen availability reduces CO2 fertilization effects

Climate models that project future atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations should include a coupled nitrogen cycle, a team of researchers led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory has concluded.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 16, 2010 | popularity 3 / 5 (4) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Too much of a good thing: Human activities overload ecosystems with nitrogen

Humans are overloading ecosystems with nitrogen through the burning of fossil fuels and an increase in nitrogen-producing industrial and agricultural activities, according to a new study. While nitrogen is ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Oct 07, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (9) | comments 22 | with audio podcast

Key new ingredient in climate model refines global predictions

For the first time, climate scientists from across the country have successfully incorporated the nitrogen cycle into global simulations for climate change, questioning previous assumptions regarding carbon feedback and potentially ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 09, 2009 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (23) | comments 28