Study Finds Human Activity Adversely Affecting Nitrogen-fixing Plants

A collaborative European-American study published in Science Advances shows that increased nitrogen deposition from human activity is reducing the diversity and evolutionary distinctiveness of nitrogen-fixing plants. Lead author Pablo Moreno García, at the University of Arizona, said excessive nitrogen from agriculture and industry makes nitrogen fixers less competitive, leading to simplified plant communities with fewer species of nitrogen fixers. Co-author Ryan Folk, of Mississippi State University, commented, “While others predicted climate change might benefit nitrogen fixers, our research shows this has not happened. Humans are changing Earth in multiple ways that affect nitrogen fixers, and nitrogen deposition is overwhelming as a harmful effect…[T]he loss of these plants threatens both biodiversity and ecosystem stability.”