Nitrogen Cycle

4. A natural event that converts nitrogen gas into nitrogen compounds that enter the soil with rain.
8. Decomposers release ammonia-based nitrogen back into the soil through this process.
9. Organisms that take in nitrogen compounds from the soil to make proteins.
10. The environment where nitrogen is stored, recycled, and made available to plants.
11. This element makes up about 78% of the air but plants cannot use it directly.

1. The process in which plants absorb nitrogen compounds from the soil and use them to grow.
2. The process that returns nitrogen compounds in the soil back into nitrogen gas in the air.
3. Organisms that break down dead material and return nitrogen to the soil.
5. Bacteria convert ammonia-based nitrogen into forms plants can absorb more easily in this process.
6. Organisms that get nitrogen by eating plants or other organisms.
7. Microorganisms in soil or roots that fix nitrogen into forms plants can use.