Nitrogen Cycle in Ecosystems

Nitrogen is the nutrient that most often limits how much life an ecosystem can support, and it moves between four very different chemical forms before a plant can ever use it. This simulator renders the classic nitrogen-cycle box model in 3D — atmospheric N₂, soil organic nitrogen, ammonium, nitrate and plant biomass — as five tanks whose fill level tracks a live set of coupled differential equations, connected by streams of particles whose speed and density scale with the real instantaneous flux. Four sliders control the rate constants for fixation, ammonification, nitrification and denitrification, a fertilizer pulse button lets you inject a shot of ammonium the way a real application would, and live readouts track every pool plus the cumulative nitrogen lost back to the atmosphere through denitrification.