Garden with Insight v1.0 Help: aerobic

Anything aerobic requires oxygen. A chemical reaction can be aerobic (if there is no oxygen it will not proceed), and an organism can be aerobic (if there is no oxygen it will die or become dormant). Aerobic bacteria in the soil drive nitrification (conversion of ammonia to nitrate) in this simulation, though they also do many other things in reality. Populations of aerobic bacteria are not explicitly simulated here, but the processes they are involved in depend on the things that increase or deplete their populations.

In general soil with too little air (and thus oxygen) has limited aerobic soil life (not only bacteria, but earthworms and beneficial insects) and is dangerous to plant roots (they need oxygen to respire). The amount of soil air is largely determined by the soil's pore space (porosity) and water content. Porosity depends on organic matter content, soil texture (clay/silt/sand), and soil structure (not simulated by this model).

How it works:
nitrification