Nitrogen in the environment : nitrification

Harvested from the University of Missouri Extension website."Many organisms live in the soil. Some of these are able to change ammonium nitrogen (NH4+) to nitrate nitrogen (NO3-). This process is called nitrification. Nitrification has two steps -- both are carried out by bacteria that live in the soil (Figure 1). Common sources of ammonium in the soil result from decaying plants and organic matter, or ammonium can come from the application of manure or nitrogen fertilizers."--First page.Scott C. Killpack and Daryl Buchholz (Department of Agronomy