Word: nitrogen
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...Midwest, California's Regional Clean Air Incentives Market program (RECLAIM) is the most ambitious attempt so far to cut urban air pollution. Under the plan, businesses will be issued shares in the region's overall emissions, and together they must reduce smog-forming hydrocarbons by 5.8% a year, nitrogen oxides by 8% and sulfur dioxide by 8.5%. Companies that exceed the reductions can sell emission "credits" to other firms. The market covers 2,800 businesses that account for one-fourth of the pollution in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties...
...nitrogen deficiency will not only affect the plants, but the ecosystem as well, Bazzaz says...
First, with the amount of nitrogen in plant tissues decreasing, the circulation of nutrients in nature will slow down...
Trees normally get their nitrogen from the ground and convert it to protein. When tree leaves fall onto the ground, they are decomposed by microorganisms into nutrients and nitrogen, which are then reused by the trees the following season...
Secondly, Bazzaz has shown in experiments that butterfly larvae that eat leaves with a higher carbon-to-nitrogen ratio than normal are more prone to death. They have a higher mortality rate and grow less than larvae that eat leaves grown from a nitrogen-rich environment. Consequently, insect populations will go down, which in turn may upset the food chain...