{"id":6006,"date":"2013-06-11T13:15:48","date_gmt":"2013-06-11T13:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/?p=6006"},"modified":"2014-12-02T08:27:00","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T08:27:00","slug":"photosynthesis-how-plants-transform-energy-from-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/photosynthesis-how-plants-transform-energy-from-the-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"Photosynthesis: How Plants Transform Energy from the Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overview:\u00a0 What Is Photosynthesis?<\/strong>
\nPhotosynthesis is the process that plants use to produce energy from light.\u00a0 It takes place in a series of chemical reactions involving chlorophyll, using carbon dioxide, water, other nutrients, and enzymes.\u00a0 The end result, glucose, is stored and used as a food source.<\/p>\n

Light<\/strong>
\nLight from the sun carries energy that is converted into chemical energy.\u00a0 The best range for photosynthesis is between 200<\/sup>C (680<\/sup>F) and 350<\/sup>C (950<\/sup> F), although some photosynthesis occurs both above and below those temperatures.\u00a0 Green plants reflect the green portion of the light spectrum, while absorbing the other wavelengths of light to use in energy transfer.<\/p>\n

Chlorophyll<\/strong>
\nChlorophyll and other pigments in plants trap the energy from sunlight.\u00a0 Special chloroplasts within cells contain the substances necessary for those reactions.\u00a0 Flattened structures called grana house some of the reactions.\u00a0 They look like dots through an electron microscope, and a fluid called stroma surrounds the structures.\u00a0 Since chlorophyll reflects green light, most leaves appear green.\u00a0 Xanthophylls and carotenes are related pigments that reflect yellow and orange light.\u00a0 When leaves stop producing chlorophyll in the fall, the xanthophylls, carotenes, and other pigments give leaves their autumn colors.<\/p>\n

The Light Reactions<\/strong>
\nReactions that depend on light occur during the first phase of the process of photosynthesis.\u00a0 These processes take place in the grana that house chlorophyll.\u00a0 Molecules of chlorophyll absorb light.\u00a0 Energy from the absorbed light causes reactions that result in the formation of a substance called ATP.\u00a0 Oxygen is released into the atmosphere.\u00a0 In fact, the largest source of free oxygen in the atmosphere is as a byproduct from photosynthesis.<\/p>\n

The Dark Reactions<\/strong>
\nThe second phase of the process of photosynthesis can occur in light or darkness.\u00a0 Energy stored in ATP made during the first phase of photosynthesis combines with carbon from carbon dioxide, as well as hydrogen, to eventually form glucose.\u00a0 Excess glucose is stored by some plants as forms of starch, and cellulose is also made from glucose.\u00a0 Chemical shorthand for photosynthesis can be written as:<\/p>\n

6CO2<\/sub> + 12H2<\/sub>O\u00a0 — mediated by light, enzymes and chlorophyll –> C6<\/sub>H12<\/sub>O6 + <\/sub>6O2<\/sub> + 6H2<\/sub>O, as the overall process.\u00a0 In other words, 6 molecules of carbon dioxide, mediated by light, enzymes, and chlorophyll, will combine to form 1 glucose molecule plus 6 oxygen molecules and 6 molecules of water.<\/p>\n

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Overview:\u00a0 What Is Photosynthesis? Photosynthesis is the process that plants use to produce energy from light.\u00a0 It takes place in a series of chemical reactions involving chlorophyll, using carbon dioxide, water, other nutrients, and enzymes.\u00a0 The end result, glucose, is stored and used as a food source. Light Light from the sun carries energy that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[276,449,1034,1324],"class_list":["post-6006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biology","tag-chlorophyll","tag-dark-reaction","tag-light-reaction","tag-photosynthesis"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}