Nitrogen fixing bacteria in the roots of leguminous plants reduce atmospheric nitrogen to ammonium using ATP and reduced NAD. The ammonium ions released into the soil are oxidised by nitrifying bacteria firstly to nitrite, and then to nitrate. This oxidation increases the nitrogen content in the soil which plants can use to produces many useful molecules including amino acids, proteins, DNA and ATP. The formation of these ions forms part of the ecological nitrogen cycle which plays a key role in sustaining life on this planet. Plants are the producers for an ecosystem.
At this time, there are still a lot of things unknown about GMOs and how it affects humans and the environment and going organic is the best option right now. Genetically modifying our food does have its advantages. The human population relies on food. If there is less food, the population declines, if there is more food, the population grows. This has happened throughout history.
This is quite an efficient method of production and the amount of the PHB polymer yielded is around 30-80% of the dry weight of the micro-organisms used. Even though this method is efficient it is still not quite economically viable as there is the high cost of using the agar solution, petri dishes and the removal of the nitrogen. More recently as this biopolymers potential to society has become more prominent, scientists are trying to develop more efficient and sustainable means to produce it. In 1992 the idea of using genetically modified plants to produce PHB was developed at Michigan State University. By using the genes from two bacteria producing organisms such as Alcaligenes Eutrophus, they could insert them into cress plants with the aim of these plants producing the PHB.
We are diverting or removing 40% of the photosynthetic effect of and plants. By burn fossil fuel has increased atmospheric CO2 by 35 %. ( Pearson Education, Inc. 2011) Also deforestation and soil degradation release significant amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere. (Wright, Boorse 2011) Phosphorus Cycle- The phosphorus cycle is the biogeochemical cycle that describes the movement of phosphorus through the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. Unlike many other biogeochemical cycles, the atmosphere does not play a significant role in the movement of phosphorus, because phosphorus and phosphorus-based compounds are usually solids at the typical ranges of temperature and pressure found on Earth.
1. Nitrogen fixation is a natural process by which inert or unreactive forms of nitrogen are transformed into usable nitrogen. Why is this process important to life? Nitrogen fixation, natural and synthetic, is crucial for all forms of life because nitrogen is required to biosynthesize basic building blocks of plants, animals and other life forms of life. Farmers rely on nitrogen fixation for agriculture and the manufacture of fertilizer.
They form a mutualistic relationship with the plants, they provide the plant with nitrogen and the plants provide them with carbohydrates. The second stage is ammonification where nitrogen sources in dead organisms are turned into ammonium compounds by decomposers. The third stage of the nitrogen cycle is nitrification. Nitrifying bacteria convert ammonium compounds to nitrites, and then other nitrifying bacteria convert these to nitrates. The last stage is denitrification where nitrates in the soil are converted into nitrogen gas by denitrifying bacteria that use the nitrates in the soil to carry out respiration and produce nitrogen gas.
UMUC Biology 102/103 Lab 2: The Chemistry of Life Pre-Lab Questions 1. Nitrogen fixation is a natural process by which inert or unreactive forms of nitrogen are transformed into usable nitrogen. Why is this process important to life? Everything needs nitrogen to grow. 2.
Michael Pollan suggests how industrial food system is unsustainable because of monocultures, which means a lot of the same species are grown together and that’s only possible by using antibiotics to keep them alive. To keep crop healthy, fertilizer is needed. For example, in Iowa, all the farms were corn and soybeans, which are for industrial use mainly. Separating the animals from the farms raises a huge sanitation problem and the animals are not happy with the conditions, a pollution problem occurs as well. Society is obsessed with productivity becoming cheap, which has made more problems regarding pesticides.
The good that can come from genetically modified food are; it can make crops pest proof, disease resistant, more nutritious, and intolerable to weather conditions. This will make farmers more confident in their crops and not have to worry so much about losing
Since it is a plant it will help reduce the “green house” gases and pollution in the air, not to mention making a cleaner burning fuel source to replace gasoline and reduce the amount of pollution even more. The plant also does not take much soil space and can be grown in between other crops such as corn. Hemp as long roots so that it improves soil structure and replenishes soil with nutrients and nitrogen and helps control erosion of topsoil. Also, once harvested, any residue can act as eco-friendly manure. It is also a weed suppresser to prevent other weeds from growing because it grows so fast and densely, it blocks out sunlight to other weeds that are trying to grow.