Knowra Fertilizer Fertilizer A natural or manufactured material added to soil or plants to supply nutrients and support growth. Fertilizers replenish elements that crops remove or that soils lack.
Plant Nutrition : The study of mineral elements and other substances plants need for growth and reproduction. Fertilizers work by supplying nutrients that plant roots or leaves can absorb.
Essential Plant Nutrients : The chemical elements plants require to complete their life cycles. Fertilizers are formulated to supply some of these required elements.
Organic Fertilizer : A fertilizer derived from plant, animal, or other biologically based materials. It contrasts with mineral fertilizers in source and often in nutrient-release pattern.
Green Revolution : The mid-twentieth-century expansion of crop yields through improved varieties, irrigation, and agricultural inputs. Expanded use of synthetic fertilizers helped raise yields during this transformation.
Nitrogen Cycle : The movement of nitrogen among the atmosphere, living organisms, soils, and waters through biological and chemical processes. Soil microbes transform fertilizer nitrogen into forms plants can use or lose.
Nitrogen : A chemical element essential to proteins, nucleic acids, and chlorophyll in plants. It is a major fertilizer nutrient associated with leafy growth.
Mineral Fertilizer : A fertilizer supplying nutrients in inorganic compounds, produced or mined for agricultural use. Its concentrated nutrient compounds differ from biologically derived fertilizer materials.
Eutrophication : The enrichment of water with nutrients that can trigger excessive algal growth and oxygen depletion. Fertilizer runoff can carry nitrogen and phosphorus into lakes and coastal waters.
Cation-Exchange Capacity : A measure of soil's ability to retain and exchange positively charged ions. It helps explain why soils differ in their retention of fertilizer nutrients.
Phosphorus : A chemical element essential to energy transfer, nucleic acids, and membranes in plants. It is a major fertilizer nutrient, commonly supplied in phosphate forms.
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