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Denitrification is the process of reducing nitrate and nitrite, highly oxidised forms of nitrogen available for consumption by many groups of organisms, into gaseous nitrogen, which is far less accessible to life forms but makes up the bulk of our atmosphere. It can be thought of as the opposite of nitrogen fixation, which converts gaseous nitrogen into a more biologically available form. The process is performed by heterotrophic bacteria (such as Paracoccus denitrificans, Thiobacillus denitrificans, and various pseudomonads) from all main proteolytic groups. Denitrification and nitrification are parts of the nitrogen cycle.