In the year 2014 37.1 million metric tons of nitrogen was applied to cornfields in the United States.9 161.4 kg/ha was the average amount per acre utilized.9 According to the United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research service, applying nitrogen at the proper rate, at the correct time, utilizing suitable methods of application are important factors for nitrogen management.10 According to the United States Geological Survey 52% of nitrogen that flowed into the Gulf of Mexico was the result of corn and soybean agriculture.11 High amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous cause a bloom of algae, that later die and cause this area in the ocean to become hypoxic.12 Phosphorus plays a crucial role in plants. Since it's a component of nucleic acids, phosphorus plays a vital role in plant reproduction. Moderate amount of phosphorus results in higher grain production but too much can harm the crops.
Continous use of chemical fertilizers can affect the soil property which later cause decrease in productivity, low nutrient recovery for plants uptake which cause higher cost of production and environmental pollution ( Sarkar et al ., 1997 ).
For many years farmers have been using nitrogen as a fertilizer, but recently runoff from big farms are triggering sudden explosions of marine algae capable of disrupting ocean ecosystems. Farmers are using way too much fertilizer and fertilizer runoff needs stopped or at least slowed/decreased.
The principal material inputs into the agricultural industry include water, fertilizer, and fuel. A significant
Land and soil quality is important to agriculture, but so is plant and the animal systems. The can be defined as ecosystems, and agriculture is an agroecosystem. The ecosystem links between the function of soil, water, and air. Changing concepts have been made from management of a single-resource, single species approach to making it a multiple management approach that would involve the structure, composition, and function of the entire ecosystems. Soil quality can be defined as the capacity of soil that is to function with ecosystem boundaries to sustain biological productivity that will maintain environmental quality, and promote plant and animal health (CEQ, 1993).
The controversy in using synthetic fertilizers is argued between large production farmers attending to the global demand of food and environmentalists concerned with the alternative effects on the environment. Although there are more in depth issues depending on the type of fertilizer being applied. The environmental issues at hand has many questioning if we should even allow the usage of synthetic fertilizers. Though the original form of soil enrichments were primarily made of animal excrement and decomposed food matter, differing greatly to what has predominantly been used today in agricultural production. Today we use synthetic fertilizers which contain compounds that are more “man made.” These compounds are things such as Ammonium Nitrate, Ammonium Phosphate, Superphosphate, and Potassium Sulfate, which derive from the by-products of the
In the United States electric power emit about 2.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year roughly Forty- percent of the nation's total emission.The EPA has both the authority to reduce pollution from these plants under the clean air act the nation’s bedrock air pollution law adopted in 1970. The EPA proposed carbon pollution standards for existing power plants in June 2014. NRDC has proposed an effective affordable and flexible approach to cut carbon pollution from existing power plants under the clean air act that taps into ingenuity of the states and the private sector. Ozone smog when pollution from vehicles, factories, and other sources reacts with sunlight and heat. Increasing speed this process and result in more smog. Added to the
Phosphorus is the 11th most abundant resource on plant earth. Phosphorus can neither by synthetically created or destroyed. Although it is theorised that we are approaching a point were we are using it faster than we can extract it from the ground.
The types and growth influences how much nitrogen is captured and released when nitrogen shows higher availability to follow crop. Ii) It improves soil structure when cover crops help open up soil and access to water and nutrient can be improved. Iii) Cover crops supply ground cover for the risk of soil erosion by water or wind, in this case there is possibility of reduction in erosion risk. Iv). Habitat creation which enables cover crops to provide a winter cover and habitat for wild birds, insects and small mammals, and this provides grazing opportunities for wildlife. v) Nutrient losses are reduced – cover crops reduce soil run-off lessen the loss of phosphate fixed to soil particles. This also reduces nitrate leaching and losses of nitrate and nitrate and nitrous oxide. Vi). Weed and pest management – most of cover crops type normally contend with range of weed and assist to provide a clean seedbed for crops. Lastly, water quality are improved and benefited cash crops, this reduces losses of nutrient, sediment and pesticides. It impacts on water quality and habitats when the soil run-off is in high level nutrient and cause choking to other aquatic life.
Natural gas is naturally occurring in the earth's surface. Its chemical consist is dominantly methane, carbon and hydrogen atoms, also contains a small amount of gaseous hydrocarbon gases and non-hydrogen gases. Consumption of natural gas is for fuel and we produce materials and chemicals. Raw natural gas is odorless, so companies that supply natural gas are adding artificial smell, like rotten egg, to let people know the presence of gas. The formation of the natural gas is the same as petroleum or oil.
In recent decades humans have been playing an increasingly large role in the nitrogen cycle. Not all of the ways humans have been affecting the cycle have been negative, but the vast majority have been. One key thing that has human activity that has been disrupting the nitrogen cycle is the burning of fossil fuel. This burning releases carbon into the air at unnatural rate, and thus alters the amount of nitrogen in the atmosphere. This has had far reaching effects that no one first thought of and is now affecting the plant and animals in Acadia National Park. Another human activity that has increased massively over the past few years is industrial nitrogen fixation. This process is used to create fertilizer with high amount of nitrogen in it.
According to the book Environment, ninth edition – on the chapter fourth The Cycling of Materials within Ecosystems – humans affect the phosphorus cycle by accelerating the long-term loss of phosphorus from the land. For example, when people consume beef from the cattle, more of the phosphate ends up in human wastes that are flushed down toilets into sewer systems. Because sewage treatment rarely removes them, phosphates cause water-quality problems in rivers, lakes, and coastal areas. In addition, phosphorus is a limiting nutrient to plants and algae in certain aquatic ecosystems. Thus, excess phosphorus from fertilizer or sewage can contribute to the enrichment of the water and lead to undesirable changes. Consequently, in 1995 a study cited
Both the nitrogen and phosphorus global cycles have considerably changed due to the added amounts by humans. The manufacturing of fertilizer releases about 120 million tonnes of nitrogen gas into the atmosphere each year. Majority of this nitrogen pollutes the environment. This slowly corrodes the pliability of Earth’s subsystems. By this study we have decided that the amount of nitrogen gas removed from the atmosphere for human use cannot surpass 35 millions of tonnes per year.
Agriculture was a cornerstone of human civilization since the beginnings of organized societies. Therefore, the ability to increase the health and yield of crops was always of great interest to civilizations universally. Chemistry can be a great tool in the field of agriculture as is exemplified by the use of fertilizers in modern farming
100 years ago a lone chemist, Fritz Haber, discovered ammonia synthesis, a process in which Fritz used a sheet of osmium inside a steel chamber, flowing with nitrogen and hydrogen gas, and packed with pressure and enormous heat, created ammonia. Fritz was a genius, and he discovered something many scientists had been frantically researching for years, the idea of turning nitrogen gas, which was abundant in the atmosphere, into a physical form in which plants can take up as nutrients. The advent rise of chemical fertilizers has brought humans many great harvests in the turn of the last century. It has given the ability for agriculture to sustain and feed humanity at an ever more increasing rate, from 1.6
Biofertilizers are becoming widely used in many countries and for many different crops. Based on Paul et al., 2013 stated that biofertilizer contain free-living organisms associated with root surfaces include endophytes and microorganisms that are able to colonize the intercellular or intracellular spaces between plant tissues without harm to the host plant. According to Vessey, 2003 defined biofertilizer as products containing lively or dormant strains of soil microbes, either bacteria or in combination with algae or fungi that increase the availability and nutrients uptake on plant. Rice production in Malaysia usually used high of input chemical fertilizer which can lead soils to be degraded, polluted and unproductive. According to Mishra and Dash, 2014 increasingly extensive uses of chemical fertilizers in India assist soils to be degraded, polluted, less productive and environmental hazards. Soil pollution is caused by the excessive application of chemical fertilizers. In other words, there is much concern to further preserve environmental through the use of less intensive and more sustainable agricultural practices by reducing the input of chemical fertilizers. (Gomiero et al.2011). Mishra and Dash, 2014 stated these issues can be solved by using biofertilizers to make the ecosystem healthier. Thus, it minimize dependency of farmer on chemical fertilizers. These biofertilizers are not harmful to crops but facilitate the unabsorbed nutrient in soil to be