Nitrogen is the most plentiful element in Earth’s atmosphere and is a constituent of all living matter. It is essential to human survival as well as the survival of other animals and plants. But even while surrounded by nitrogen in the atmosphere, animals and plants are unable to make use of free nitrogen, because they lack the enzymes necessary to convert it to reactive forms they can work with. In fact, all higher life-forms depend on bacteria to do the work of nitrogen fixation, wherein free nitrogen is combined chemically with other elements to form more-reactive compounds such as ammonia, nitrates, or nitrites.
Nitrogen fixation is a key part of the nitrogen cycle, or the circulation of nitrogen in various forms through nature. The vast majority of nitrogen fixation in nature is performed by certain types of bacteria and by blue-green algae. Abiotic processes, including lightning and ultraviolet radiation, as well as the conversion to ammonia through the Haber-Bosch process, fix smaller amounts of atmospheric nitrogen.
The nitrogen-based compounds produced from nitrogen fixation are taken up into the tissues of algae and plants. Animals eat the algae and plants, thereby taking up the compounds into their own tissues. Animals use the compounds in their cells, or the compounds are broken down and excreted in the form of urea and other waste products. Nitrogen-based compounds released as wastes or occurring in the bodies of dead organisms are converted to ammonia and subsequently to nitrates and nitrites. These compounds are then converted again to atmospheric nitrogen by so-called denitrifying bacteria in the environment.