More than 95% of the atmosphere is nitrogen, and where all of that nitrogen came from is one of astronomy's greatest mysteries, says Catherine Neish, a planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
New nitrogen comes from the air, which is 78% nitrogen by volume, but it is almost all in the form of nitrogen gas.
The nitrogen coming out of nitrogen hydrate can be fixed and oxidized into nitrate.
As described in this news release and the March issue of the journal Environmental Science and Technology, the research "will allow scientists to look at rain samples and determine how much nitrogen comes from power plant stacks as opposed to how much comes from such other sources as motor vehicles, lightning, or soil".
Nitrogen comes from sources like fertilizer and animal feces picked up by storm water runoff, but waste water flowing into the Sound has been identified as a primary factor.
Nitrogen fertilizers are largely used, large amounts of nitrogen comes from farms can cause a surface water pollution.
Where does all this human-generated reactive nitrogen come from?
Its nitrogen comes from inorganic compounds such as NH3, NO3-, or N2.
Most naturally occurring reactive nitrogen comes from nitrogen fixation by bacteria, including cyanobacteria and specialized bacteria such as those in the genus Rhizobium, which most often live symbiotically in plants such as peas, beans, and alfalfa.
Elevated aquatic inputs of both phosphorus and nitrogen come from both nonpoint sources (associated mainly with agriculture) and point sources, such as wastewater treatment plants.
