What's the first step of the Nitrogen Cycle?
Nitrogen cycle
The nitrogen cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which nitrogen is converted into multiple chemical forms as it circulates among atmosphere, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems. The conversion of nitrogen can be carried out through both biological and physical processes. Important processes in the nitrogen cycle include fixation, ammonification, nitrification, and denitrification. The majority of Earth's atmosphere (78%) is atmosphere nitrogen, making it the largest source of nitrogen. However, atmospheric nitrogen has limited availability for biological use, leading to a scarcity of usable nitrogen in many types of ecosystems.
Orchid mycorrhiza
Nitrogen transport is an equally important and influential process that often occurs through mycorrhizal associations. Nitrogen is significantly easier to obtain than phosphorus and far more abundant, but mycorrhizal interactions still provide a significant benefit in the allocation of nitrogen. Bioavailable nitrogen as nitrate and ammonium are absorbed from the soil media into the extraradical mycelium of the mycorrhizal fungi and assimilated into amino acids. In some cases amino acids and other nitrogenous organic compounds may be present in the surrounding soil. If so organic nitrogen uptake also takes place through amino acid permeases and peptide transporters. Once incorporated into the fungi as amino acids, there are a few different proposed mechanisms with which the nitrogen is transferred to the host plant. These pathways of nitrogen transfer are thought to be exclusively biotrophic, a significant amount of nitrogen may also be transferred necrotorphically but through a significantly different process. In the first pathway the amino acids are transferred to the extraradical mycelium where the amino acids are broken down by the catabolic stage of the urea cycle. The primary amino acid synthesized and intra-fungally transferred is arginine, which is catabolized into ammonium. The ammonium is then shunted into the interfacial space between the peloton and the surrounding plant membrane,and transported into the plant cell via ammonium transporters and incorporated into the plant.