
The Nitrogen Problem: Global Warming Is Making It Worse - Red_Tarsius
http://e360.yale.edu/features/the-nitrogen-problem-why-global-warming-is-making-it-worse
======
sddfd
While the article states that nitrogen availability will increase due to
climate change, I am missing a discussion about it also being the limiting
factor.

While nitrogen is frequently the limiting factor in oceans, this it might not
be the case in lakes and rivers, where phosphorus is more often the limiting
factor.

------
21
How about adding genes to plants to make them able to extract nitrogen
directly from air? Apparently some vegetables are already doing this (peas,
beans, soybeans, alfafa)

But I can already see the huge marketing problem of this (non-organic,
unnatural, GMO, ...)

~~~
adrianN
Those plants are doing it via symbiosis with soil bacteria. That seems a bit
difficult to engineer into other plants, because it involves a lot more than
producing a couple of extra molecules, like e.g. BT corn. But then again, I'm
not a geneticist.

~~~
QAPereo
Absolutely, and it's the reason why even something as lucrative as like white
truffles or huckleberries can't be cultivated very easily, if at all.

~~~
thatcherc
I don't quite understand what your comment is getting at but I'm interested.
Do truffles and huckleberries only grow in nitrogen rich soils?

~~~
QAPereo
Oh sorry, no. Truffles grow as part of a symbiotic system around certain tree
roots, and it's devilishly hard to recreate those conditions well enough in
"captivity" if you get my drift.

Huckleberries are an interesting case and that nobody is quite sure why they
fail as a crop, but at the end of the day the only way to grow more
huckleberries is to clear woodland and let huckleberries grow there.

[http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/08/11/542690164/for...](http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/08/11/542690164/for-
the-love-of-huckleberries-august-brings-out-hunters-of-elusive-fruit)

------
raverbashing
Algae growth == Carbon Sequestering

We should be finding ways of leveraging this to our advantage instead of
complaining

~~~
cropsieboss
They suck out oxygen too. That's how you get ocean deadzones.

~~~
dredmorbius
That depends on whether you've got photosynthetic or abiotic algae. Blue-green
algae _produce_ oxygen.

One theory on ice-ages involves what's basically pond-lilly taking over the
Arctic, which at the time was a shallow sea with a freshwater lens over salt
water.

~~~
sddfd
>abiotic algae

What specific species are you referring to?

>Blue-green algae produce oxygen.

That is only true during daylight. At night algae consume oxygen.

Independently, photosynthetic activity can increase pH values drastically.

~~~
dredmorbius
Specific mechanism is described here. It's the bacterial decomposition of the
algae rather than the algael bloom itself which _directly_ prompts the issue.

A bit of hair splitting, but useful for understanding what's going on.

[https://articles.extension.org/pages/45651/if-algae-
produce-...](https://articles.extension.org/pages/45651/if-algae-produce-
oxygen-in-a-pond-how-can-having-too-much-algae-cause-an-oxygen-depletion)

