ThrowRA_N7 t1_iuinpuq wrote on October 31, 2022 at 4:52 PM

Reply to comment by Drewismole in ELI5 Why can’t plants absorb nitrogen from the air? by Cool-Boy57

Theres also not much evolutionary pressure for plants to develop the ability to do this themselves since nitrogen availability usually isn’t as much of a problem for wild plants that aren’t getting constantly harvested and replanted rather than dying and decomposing naturally allowing their nutrients to return to the soil (also evolving an entirely new metabolic pathway with new enzymes and everything would take at least several million years)

beeff t1_iujgnc8 wrote on October 31, 2022 at 8:05 PM

On the contrary, many plants have evolved to tolerate low nitrogen availability. Some industrialized countries are facing a "nitrogen crisis" where many of the native plant species are getting out-competed by plants that make better use of the glut of available nitrogen introduced by fertilizer and exhaust pollution. (e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/15/netherlands-announces-25bn-plan-to-radically-reduce-livestock-numbers)