Question

You have created a small-scale ecosystem in your laboratory that exactly mimics the nitrogen cycle in nature. You accidentally release a virus into your laboratory that inserts itself into (and inactivates) the gene for nitrogenase. What would you expect to happen in your ecosystem?

Answer 1

Answer:

The correct answer will be- the amount of ammonia will decrease in lithosphere and the amount of nitrogen in atmosphere will increase.

Explanation:

Nitrogen is the most abundant element present in the atmosphere as it constitutes 78% of the atmospheric gases.

The major cause of nitrogen fixation on Earth is biological nitrogen fixation which takes place due to the ability of prokaryotes to utilize atmospheric nitrogen as they possess an enzyme called nitrogenase. The nitrogenase converts the atmospheric nitrogen to a usable form that is ammonia (NH₃).  

In the given condition, if virus inactivates the nitrogenase enzyme, then atmospheric nitrogen will not be converted to ammonia as a result of which the Amount of ammonia of soil decreases in the soil and the atmospheric nitrogen will increase.