How Nitrogen Fosters Environmental Trouble
Climate warming Elevated nitrogen levels lead to ground level ozone (NO, NO2, NOx), a significant greenhouse gas that speeds climate warming.
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Nitrogen comprises 78% of the atmosphere in the form of inert, nonreactive gas bound by a triple bond.
Health-related diseases
Health-related diseases have been linked to excess nitrogen levels including cancers, Alzheimer's disease, cardiopulmonary ailments, diabetes, and other infectious diseases.
Reactive Nitrogen Reactive nitrogen is formed when atmospheric N2 interacts with bacteria on land and in fresh and salt water – called nitrogen fixation. This process breaks the gas' triple bond.
Loss of Biodiversity/ Ecological Impact Making nitrogen for life forms relies on the action of a small group of bacteria that helps to break the triple bond between the two atoms.
Excess Nitrogen Levels
Loss of rare plants and species as a result of nitrogen pollution, which accounts for one of the top three threats to biodiversity. Animal species, such as mosquitoes and snails, may act as disease bearing agents.
from Human Activity
Reactive nitrogen becomes a risk when levels become elevated. Excess nitrogen levels are the result of human activity through the production and overuse of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. Source: Alan R. Townsend and Rober W. Howarth, "Fixing the Global Nitrogen Problem", Scientific America (2010): 64-71.