Scientists tell us that when microbes started making O2, they changed Earth's atmosphere and triggered nass extinctions.
I wonder what consuming most of the N2 would do?
I wonder what consuming most of the N2 would do?
Nitrogen is important in fertilizer because our farming and agriculture is not a natural ecosystem.
No plants can fix nitrogen. Hence this research?
“Nitrogen fixing plants don't pull nitrogen from the air on their own. They actually need help from a common bacteria called Rhizobium. The bacteria infects legume plants such as peas and beans and uses the plant to help it draw nitrogen from the air. The bacteria converts this nitrogen gas and stores it in the roots of the plant.”
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertiliz...
Plants fix nitrogen in common parlance but you are technically correct: I sincerely hope that your scientific pedantry works out better for you than it has for me (I won't delve into that topic further).
"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says".
Most engines would probably run hotter & weaker w/out as much nitrogen to use as a working fluid (maybe we'd compensate for this w/ water injection & get even better performance though?)
The speed of sound would decease slightly, while the speed needed to generate lift at a given altitude would increase. This would definitely affect airplanes, e.g. a plane that can cruise at 15k feet but not 30k feet might not be able to reach 15k feet anymore
For reference at 1 mile is Denver Colorado (which while researching is enough to cause altitude sickness) with 18% less atmosphere. Water boils at 200° F.
If half the nitrogen was gone (38.5% of atmosphere), sea level world be equivalent to ~15,000 feet today) water would now boil at ~194.3° F.