The Benefits and Impications of Using Fertilisers for Improving Plant Productivity To the Environment
In my point of view I think that fertilizers are of use to the
environment in some ways but can also be potentially damaging in
others. The term fertilisers is stated as " A substance usually added
to soil to increase its ability to support plant growth" by Encarta.
This shows that fertilisers are needed to keep soil in good conditions
to allow the maximum productivity for plant growth. This is why they
are important to the agricultural industry because they allow maximum
productivity and higher yields, meaning more money for the farmer. But
fertilisers can also be potentially hazardous to the environment; they
can pollute local water supplies, harm humans and animals and can add
to the amount of volatile gases being added to the atmosphere.
Firstly fertilizers are potentially good for the environment in ways
that they improve the soil structure and nutrient content, this
therefore improves plant growth. Fertilisers are needed to allow a
farmer to have maximum productivity in the crop that they are growing.
So they are vital for economic reasons to allow the most productivity
the land can give, (high yield) so the most money can be got from
selling the high yield amount of crops. Also fertilisers help the
condition of the plants to be top condition by providing them the
first hand nutrients, which are vital for good growing that may not
already be in the soil.
Fertilisers normally consist of macronutrients (the main nutrients in
mass quantities) and micronutrients (e.g. copper, zinc etc), which are
also found, in fertilisers but...
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...his means that
plants at the bottom die of lack of sunlight and animals can die
through lack of oxygen, which has been used up by the algae. This
ruins the ecosystem of the water supplies and the food chain around
that area is dramatically effected because animals which used fish to
feed off. No longer have these animals as there food supply so in turn
decreases amount of plant dwelling animals. This is called
eutrophication, nitrates and phosphates polluting water supplies. This
is a strongly negative reason why fertilisers should not be used in
the environment, because they are very hazardous to surrounding
wildlife. And when not used correctly like this the risks of using
them are too high on the treat to the environment, so practices to
monitor their content in the soil is vitally needed if they should be
used.
...at over planting can do to the land, the majority of the United States just moved on and continued to treat the land just as poorly as before. John Pursell views chemical fertilizer as a thing that turns soil into “chemical wasteland” and mentions that today’s soil is often not good enough to resist heavy rainfalls.
Nitrogen can be considered as both a fertilizer and nutrient under the right constraints. I will use citrus plants as one of my examples. For citrus growers applying nitrogen to plants is a common and needed practice. “Spring is the best time to apply nitrogen to citrus. Research has shown that the demand for nitrogen in citrus is highest from bloom through June and most of the supplemental nitrogen fertilizer should be applied during this time period.” It is a major key to plant growth and development. Nitrogen is crucial to citrus plants for optimal growth and yield. Without nitrogen you can see suffering results for many years down the road.
For years farmers have been adding natural fertilizers to their crops. It is a big risk though. Over fertilizing is very dangerous. It puts high concentrations of salt into the soil. It can also affect the water resources nearby. Nitrogen, Phosphate, and Potassium are the basics of fertilizer. If a certain nutrient is short in supply the fertilizer might not work as well. Calcium, iron, manganese are also nutrients that might be needed. So don’t just trust the fertilizer bag that says it has all the nutrients, test it out. (Miller and Levine 717)
... into fertilizer, this change also releases many harmful chemicals into the air, and once again the earth’s atmosphere is being destroyed.
Use of pesticides & other fertilizers infuse nitrogen oxide into the water bodies acidifying the water which kills the plants and aquatic animals living in
*** Macronutrients Certain elements in the soil are required by plants in relatively large quantities; these are called macronutrients. Some of these are major components of nucleic acids, proteins, and phospholipids, all of which are plentiful in plants. Among the macronutrients, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) are particularly important because they often act as limiting nutrients, meaning their availability limits plant growth. If N, P, and/or K are added in appropriate quantities to soil as fertilizer, plant growth usually increases. This observation explains why the leading ingredients in virtually every commercial fertilizer are N, P, and K. Freeman 5th***. Both organic and inorganic fertilizers provide plants with the nutrients needed to grow healthy and strong. However, each contains different ingredients and supplies these nutrients in different ways. Organic fertilizers work over time to create a healthy growing environment, while inorganic fertilizers provide rapid nutrition. (REFERENCE/rephrase)
Three substances mainly make fertilisers: nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. Their percentage in the solution will change the effectiveness on a determinate plant; for example is recommended to use high proportion of nitrogen fertilizers during the spring growth of spurts. The fertilisers can be spitted in two categories: organic that contains a low level of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium and aren’t toxic to the environment and synthetic that are made by a high concentration of the three substances and can be corrosive to the environment if are overused.
Hydroponics are the process of growing plants in sand, gravel, or liquid, with added nutrients but without soil. Hydroponics are mainly growing soil based plants in water. There are several different types of hydroponics, such as wick systems, deep water culture, NFT, Ebb and Flow, Areoponics, and drip systems. An excellent example of hydroponics is the deep water culture which was used or our hydroponics unit. The process was brought to popular attention in the United States in 1937 by Dr. W. F. Gericke, who introduced the word "hydroponic" (from the Greek words for "water" and "work") and publicly displayed immense tomato plants cultivated by this method (encyclopedia.com). Hydroponics are very beneficial to our ecosystems because hydroponics
The Use of Fertilisers and Pesticides in Agriculture Agriculture today dominates the majority of all land uses. As a result it has a fundamental role in maintaining the countryside and protecting the environment. The development of the use of fertilisers and pesticides has dramatically increased the efficiency of food production and has in fact more than quadrupled food production in the last century[1]. They also have reduced the cost and increased the variety of foods available. However, there are serious consequences to the uses of many of these pesticides and fertilisers and they have resulted in various environmental problems.
The use of chemicals on conventional produce may not make it to our dinner tables but it does show up elsewhere. It leaves traces in our water, in our air and in our soil. Over time the nitrogen based fertilizers that are used ultimately kill the ground that they are meant to make fertile. According to a 21 year study performed by a group of Swiss researchers, who by focusing on the lev...
Nutrient availability from organic sources is due to microbial action and improved physical condition of soil (Sarker et al., 2004). The use of organic fertilizer to the soil helps to enhance its nutrient status and reduce incidence of pest (Adilakshi et al.,2007). Research done by Sridhar and Adeoye (2003) stated that organic based fertilizers are less leached into ground water than the inorganic
Farmers apply nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, manure, and potassium in the form of fertilizers to produce a better product for the consumers. When these sources exceed the plants needs or if these nutrients are applied before a heavy rain then the opportunity for these excess to wash into aquatic ecosystems exists.
In recent years it has become clear that some environmental chemicals can cause risks to the developing embryo and fetus. Evaluating the developmental toxicity of environmental chemicals is now a prominent public health concern. The suspected association between TCE and congenital cardiac malformations warrants special attention because TCE is a common drinking water contaminant that is detected in water supplies throughout the U.S. and the world. There is a lot of concern about the clean up of toxic pollutants from the environment.
Artificial planting is the process of moving and planting a large (existing tree) tree from one site to another. It’s also known as ‘Tree spading’ or ‘transplanting’. The traditional method of transplanting was to use trained manual labour to help dig out the entire root system which was a lot of work. Artificial planting uses a crane to make a trench of around one to two metres at the base of the tree, followed by the pulling out of the tree. The root ball is then covered with wet husk or resin and is then transported to the new location. The soil from the new location is then used to cover up the trench in the first location and hence the tree is successfully retrenched and replanted at another location without any damage. The process of Artificial Planting takes a lot of specialised preparation and engineering methods. The psychological status of the tree has to be ascertained to be disease free and healthy, before the transplantation. The new location of the tree should also be checked to see to its disease-free requirement as well as the conditions of optimum sunlight and soil makeup.
Organic farming has mushroomed drastically in importance and influence worldwide from its modest beginnings in the first half of the last century. Organic farming is production of food and livestock without the use of herbicides, pesticides, weedicides, fertilizers or genetically modified organism and use natural resources such as manure and compost instead. In other words, it is a production system which maintains the quality of soil ecosystem as well as human beings. According to IOWA State University, “the chemicals were not used for farming before World War 2. A number of munitions used in farming have contributed to field of agriculture. For instance, ammonium nitrate used as ammonium nitrate fertilizer”.