AussieBonsai
Yamadori
Thats a good point.
Bonsai in the tropics
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AussieBonsai
Yamadori
From a professor at Nat Uni of Singapore:
“Hi,
Thanks for writing. Interesting question and (embarrassingly) I had to do some looking around to learn about it. It seems that lightning can be a significant force to convert N2 in to NO3 in the atmosphere where it would enter the soil through precipitation. NO3 is the most common form of available N for plants in the soil. I doubt it would be enough to replace N fertiliser but I supposed it would be context-dependent, but soil microbes do the vast majority of nitrification. In N-limited soils, N-fixing plants (legumes) can be planted to increase available N if the leaves are used as "green manure" - this is done especially in the tropics. Thus, my gut feeling is that lightning would not nitrify enough, consistently and over a broad enough area, to make such a difference. But I am not the authority on matter”
And so I think we can put that question to rest
“Hi,
Thanks for writing. Interesting question and (embarrassingly) I had to do some looking around to learn about it. It seems that lightning can be a significant force to convert N2 in to NO3 in the atmosphere where it would enter the soil through precipitation. NO3 is the most common form of available N for plants in the soil. I doubt it would be enough to replace N fertiliser but I supposed it would be context-dependent, but soil microbes do the vast majority of nitrification. In N-limited soils, N-fixing plants (legumes) can be planted to increase available N if the leaves are used as "green manure" - this is done especially in the tropics. Thus, my gut feeling is that lightning would not nitrify enough, consistently and over a broad enough area, to make such a difference. But I am not the authority on matter”
And so I think we can put that question to rest
leatherback
The Treedeemer
Forsoothe!
Imperial Masterpiece
So, is NOx from one source good and the other bad?Of course does lightning create NOx but looking at the bigger picture it's obvious that concentrations of NOx in the air are mostly related to burning fossil fuel.
Just look at this map:
The red spots are industrialised areas, not areas with a lot of lightning.
NASA CSI: On the Trail of a Hazy Global Killer - NASA
For more than three decades NASA has focused its space-faring skills and science chops CSI-like on an elusive global killer. Later this month, that pursuitwww.nasa.gov
In Singapore most NOx will be from ships, traffic and industry with a negligible input from lightning.
leatherback
The Treedeemer
Nope. Same chemical compound.
AussieBonsai
Yamadori
A rather random update on this topic. I ran into a scientist (soil scientist) from the national parks board here in Singapore who confirmed that yes, Singapore has high levels of nitrogen in its soil, specifically due to the high level of lightning, however soil conditions means is it leached rapidly causing regular algae out breaks.
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