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You may know that legumes like peas and beans add nitrogen to the soil. Our Year 12 Chemists have been studying the nitrogen cycle to see how this process of fixing nitrogen occurs.

Plants cannot normally use atmospheric nitrogen and cannot convert it into useable ammonium or other nitrogen compounds. However, Rhizobium, a nitrogen fixing bacteria, can convert atmospheric nitrogen into the useable Ammonium. The plant and the bacterium develop a symbiosis where the two organisms live together for the benefit of both.

So, when your bean plants die off, leave the roots in the soil to provide nitrogen for the next crop.

During Term 1 the students have harvested the broad beans that were planted in orientation week last year, to see first-hand how the root system develops Rhizobium colonies. They willl be doing further studies of the nitrogen content of the roots back in the lab.

John MacGregor | Science Teacher

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