Biology / Unit 11 Bio 2573 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Essential Nutrients: Macronutrients and Micronutrients
Captions available
The idea
An essential nutrient is required for a plant's life cycle, irreplaceable by another element, and acts directly in nutrition; macronutrients are needed in bulk, micronutrients in trace amounts.
In practice
Carbon, abundant in plant dry mass, is a macronutrient; trace-needed iron is a micronutrient.
Where people slip
"Macro" and "micro" describe quantity, not importance — a trace-nutrient deficiency can limit growth as much as a bulk-nutrient one.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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