ABSTRACT
The goal of the present chapter is to give the reader a clearer sense of some of the many processes that involve mineral nutrients and ranges of rates at which those processes occur. Mineral nutrition of plants involves the acquisition of elements from the environment, and the organization and functioning of essential plant nutrients are a consequence of the interaction of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of the plant with the environment. Because of the great complexity of plants, processes involving essential nutrient elements vary from relatively slow to relatively fast. Plants require 17 essential nutrients, and several other elements, such as cobalt, sodium, and silicon, have been found to stimulate the growth of some plants (Epstein and Bloom, 2005).
