plant nutrition Flashcards
essential nutrients
affect some aspect of plant growth or development, not all nutrients in a plant are essential
phytoremediation
planting toxin resistant plants in contaminated soils to draw up toxins, must be harvested to prevent releasing them back
macronutrients
make up more than 1000mg/kg of dry plant mass greater than 0.1%
micronutrients
make up less than 100mg/kg of dry plant mass less than 0.01%
deer on the isle of rum
turned to carnivory of chicks for a calcium source due to lack of nutrients available from plants
structural nutrients
nutrients are present in essential molecules; S, Mg, N, C, H, O, Ca
ionic nutrients
set up ion gradients; K, Cl, H
enzymatic nutrients
can be a part of an enzyme or a cofactor; Ca, Fe, K, Mn
cations
bound to negatively charged soil particles absorbed through cation exchange
anions
unable to bind to the soil causing them to leach when it rains, makes them limiting nutrients
cation exchange
cations bound to the soil are exchanged hydrogen cations to release the nutrient cations for plants to uptake them; plants prefer acidic soils
ways plants increase soil acidity
passively releasing CO2 which reacts with water giving off H+ ions or by actively pumping out H+
biochemical cycling
releases nutrients into soil for plants to use in ecosystems through a mixture of geological and biological processes
The Nitrogen cycle
nitrogen is abundant in the atmosphere as gaseous N2 but plants can only use NH4 or NO3, NO3 is preferred; Nitrogen fixation to nitrification to ammonification to denitrification
nitrogen fixation
can be done by nitrogen fixing bacteria or lightning converting N2 in the air to ammonia in the soil