Nitrogen is all around us.
Nitrogen is an element that plays a crucial role in our daily lives, often in ways we might not immediately recognize. For instance, the air we breathe is about 78% nitrogen. What about other properties of this essential element?
An introduction to nitrogen in the environment begins with a paradox: nitrogen — existing in its inert state as N2 — is the most abundant element in the earth’s atmosphere but, in this form, is almost wholly unusable by the vast majority of living organisms. (Braun et al., 2007)