Ikjonho

THE NITROGEN CYCLE GAME

The game begins as organic nitrogen and as players move through the game nitrogen is transformed to ammonium salts (NH ) and nitrate (NO ) in the journey toward cropuptake. Ladders help the players advance on their way to the green zone while chutes represent the loss of nitrogen through leaching, runoff, immobilization, erosion or denitrification. If a player isvolatilized or denitrified, he/she ends up in the air and loses two turns before the player starts all over. If a player encounters erosion or runoff, he/she ends up in surface water. If a playerencounters leaching, he/she ends up in ground water.

Three to six players select from tokens representing three different types of organic nitrogen: legume nitrogen, crop residue nitrogen, and manurenitrogen. Each player spins or throws the die to determine who goes first. The player with the highest number goes first and play proceeds in a clockwise direction. Each player throws the die andmoves the corresponding number of squares across the game board (no diagonal moves are permitted). Two or more players are permitted to land on a square simultaneously. If a player lands at the BASE ofa ladder, the player moves up to the top of the ladder. If a players lands at the TOP of a chute, the player slides down the chute to the bottom. The player must roll the exact number on the dice towin. The first player to arrive at Crop Uptake (Square 25) is the winner. Use the ecologist sheet to record you progress of the game.


Mineralization: Decomposers change organic nitrogen storedin dead organisms to inorganic nitrogen. They changed ammonia (NH4 ) to ammonium salts (NH ).

Immobilization: Microbes (bacteria) take in nitrogen from the soil and make it unavailable toplants.

Nitrification: Nitrogen fixing bacteria change nitrogen to a form that can be used by plants. They change ammonium salts (NH ) to nitrite (NO ) and other type of fixing bacteria changes...