Ammonium / Ammonium
Online Tutorial materials in Biology for the education department at the LMU.
Lehrerbildung@LMU
In nature, ammonia is formed due to volcanic activity and electrostatic discharge in the upper ranges of the atmosphere from nitrogen and water vapor. Additionally, ammonia is formed during decomposition processes, which means during the mineralization of nitrogen containing plant and animal proteins. Within the mineral kingdom, almost all magmatic rocks contain small amounts of ammonium salts. Large sources of ammonium chloride have been discovered more than 1000 years ago close to smoldering coal deposits. Close to the volcanoes Vesuvius and Mount Etna, ammonium salts can be detected as well. From these different sources, as well as from automobile and industry exhaust fumes, significant amounts of ammonium salts are fed into the soil as nitrogen fertilizer in the form of rainfall. Ammonium ions can also form as a result of microbial nitrate reduction.
Ammonia is especially toxic to fish (from 0.5 mg/L) and is present at pH values above
7 due to the pH dependant balance between ammonium ions and ammonia. At pH 6, the balance is almost exclusively on the side of ammonium, at pH 8, already 4 %, at pH 9 25 % and at pH 10 even 78 % ammonia are present (at a water temperature of 17 °C).
High ammonium contents also substantially strain the oxygen balance of water bodies.
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Director and creator of the film:
VIKTORIIA KAMSKA
Played by:
Immanuel Görens
Production:
Dr. Martina Bryce and Dr. Jennifer Flechsler
