So why is anybody worried about nitrogen? What is nitrogen anyways? Nitrogen is an element, one of the 109 we know about today. It is the seventh element, putting it right next to carbon (atomic number 6) and oxyen (number 8), and right above phosphorus (number 15). All these elements are extremely important for life on earth! Nitrogen is very important for plants to grow -- in fact it is so important that it is in almost every fertilizer! If you want a plant to grow, many times you will put some kind of nitrogen where it can get to it -- like in its roots, or... in its water!
So a lot of nitrogen in the Neuse means that some kinds of plants will grow like crazy! That is exactly what happened in 1995 when all those fish died.

But so what if plants grew? It's not a big deal if a couple more trees grew or got bigger, is it?

No, that wouldn't be a big deal... but imagine if BILLIONS OF TRILLIONS of plants started growing! Because that IS what happened. Tiny little one celled plants and animals, so small you can't see them without a microscope, began growing and making more and more of themselves...

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