Researchers find nature’s backup plan for converting nitrogen into plant nutrients – Phys.org
Excerpt:
Princeton University researchers have found evidence that other metals can facilitate nitrogen fixation when molybdenum is scarce, which suggests that the process may be more resilient than previously thought, according to a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Working in a 372 mile (600 kilometer) stretch of boreal forest in Canada, the researchers found that nitrogen fixation at an ecosystem scale can also be catalyzed by the metal vanadium, particularly in northern regions with limited natural nitrogen inputs.
“This work prompts a major revision of our understanding of how micronutrients control ecosystem nitrogen status and fertility,” said senior author Xinning Zhang, assistant professor of geosciences and the Princeton Environmental Institute.
“We need to know more about how nitrogen fixation manifests in terms of nutrient budgets, cycling and biodiversity,” she said. “One consequence of this finding is that current estimates of the amount of nitrogen input into boreal forests through fixation may be significantly underestimated. This is a major issue for our understanding of nutrient requirements for forest ecosystems, which currently function as an important sink for anthropogenic carbon.
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