Question

Why is it that nitrogen is often a limiting plant nutrient, despite the fact that the atmosphere is 80% nitrogen gas (N2)

Answer 1

Nitrogen is a limiting plant nutrient because the bulk of the available nitrogen in the atmosphere is not usable by plants.

Plants are not able to make use of the nitrogen in the atmosphere directly. Atmospheric nitrogen needs to be converted into usable forms before it can be accessed by plants.

The conversion of atmospheric nitrogen to usable form by plants is known as nitrogen fixation and this is achievable by the activities of certain bacteria.

More on nitrogen fixation can be found here; brainly.com/question/4191267?referrer=searchResults