they eat plants wih nitrogen in them
Herbivores get the nitrogen they need by eating plants.
Herbivores need nitrogen because it is essential for their metabolic systems and cellular structures.
Herbivores can directly increase nitrogen mobility by increasing the quality of organic matter entering the decomposition cycle, but they also may decrease nitrogen mobility by decreasing the biomass of high-nitrogen species in the plant community.
carnivores -> herbivores -> plants -> nitrogen fixing bacteria
well, herbivores eat plants (which have nitrogen in them due to help from nitrogen fixating bacteria) then other animals eat herbivores. Since animals are heterotrophs they have to get their nutrients from other organisms.
Nitrogen enters the food chain through nitrogen-fixing bacteria which convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form that plants can absorb. Plants then take up this nitrogen through their roots and incorporate it into their tissues. When herbivores eat these plants, they obtain the nitrogen, and it continues up the food chain when carnivores eat the herbivores.
All organisms need nitrogen because it is a component of all proteins and many other essential molecules.
All organisms need nitrogen because it is a component of all proteins and many other essential molecules.
Not unless their prey is vegetation. However, there have been instances where herbivores have become predators: Pika, in herbivores like cows, is a nitrogen deficiency that drives cows to turn to eating meat or eating rabbits to satisfy this nitrogen craving. Icelandic ponies have been reported to have turned to catching fish and eating them, probably due to the same craving for nitrogen.
The source of nitrogen's for carnivores (meat eating animals) is by EATING HERBIVORES they eat plants and the plants have the nitrogen by the soil... ect...
Herbivores, like all consumer organisms, obtain their component atoms from the food they ingest. They cannot obtain Nitrogen from air (even though the air is about 78% nitrogen). Nitrogen is a key atom in all proteins - as part of the "amine" group in the "amino-acid" that makes up the backbone of all protein chains. This amino acid usually remains intact once digested, to be used to create new proteins that the herbivore might need for its own purposes.
Some bacterium have the capability of nitrogen fixation. This is where nitrogen in the atmosphere, which is inert, is taken from a bacterium and fixed into a complex molecule. This is absorbed by plants and is used and growth and herbivores depend on plants for growth and carnivores depend on herbivores for growth. Most life depends on what microorganism produce as bi-products.