So, I recently watched a video regarding the first synthesized fertilizer, and I thought it was pretty interesting that farmland was basically screwed if they didn’t figure out how to get more nitrogen into dirt.
But then I thought about it, I was taught that plants make the bulk of themselves out of carbon, which they absorb from the air in carbon dioxide. Why is the same not true with nitrogen? Our atmosphere is a little more than 2/3rds nitrogen after all.
I tried looking it up, but the result was basically “Because nitrogen in the atmosphere is in a gaseous form” but that wasn’t really helpful.
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The core of the issue is that it take a lot of energy to convert N2 (atmospheric nitrogen) into Nitrate (NO3^- ), and is difficult for a plant or animal to do in their cells.
To illustrate the energy intensity of the process, AFAIK, the main mechanism for N2 to get converted to NO3^- is lightning strikes.
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