Unlike animals, which need to direct processed foods, plants are able to produce their own food through this process: photosynthesis. To make photosynthesis plants have a green pigment called chlorophyll that is responsible for absorbing the right light to perform. This process. In addition to plants, photosynthesis is also carried out by green algae and certain types of bacteria.
Photosynthesis is a process that transforms the energy of sunlight into chemical energy. Consists, basically, in the elaboration of sugars from C02 (carbon dioxide) minerals and water with the help of sunlight.
Factors that condition photosynthesis
- The light.
- Water.
- Carbon dioxide.
- The pigments.
- Temperature.
SOURCE
¿How is photosynthesis produced?
Photosynthesis occurs mainly in the leaves of plants, although in a smaller proportion it can be produced in stems, especially in some plants that have undergone adaptations, such as cactus or succulent plants.
The sheet consists mainly of the following parts:
- Epidermis: The epidermis is the outer layer of the sheet that covers both the beam and the back.
- Mesophilic: The mesophile is the middle layer of the leaf.
- The vascular bundles: They are the channels that, in the form of veins, allow the transport of nutritious substances and water.
- The stomata: They are a kind of holes or valves that allow the exchange of gases between the inside of the leaf and the external environment.
The leaves: where photosynthesis occurs
Plants are the most common autotrophs in terrestrial ecosystems. All the green tissues of plants can be photosynthesized, but in most plants, most of the photosynthesis occurs in the leaves. The cells of an intermediate layer of leaf tissue called mesophyll are the main place where photosynthesis occurs.
In almost all plants there are small pores called stomata on the surface of the leaves, which allow carbon dioxide to diffuse to the mesophyll and oxygen to the outside.
The ecological importance of photosynthesis
Photosynthetic organisms, such as plants, algae, and some bacteria, fulfill a key ecological function: they introduce chemical energy and fixed carbon into ecosystems through the use of light to synthesize sugars. Since they produce their own food (that is, fix their own carbon) with the energy of light, these organisms are called photoautotrophs (literally, "organisms that feed themselves by using light").
Humans and other organisms that can not convert carbon dioxide into organic compounds are called heterotrophs ("which feeds on another.") Heterotrophs must obtain the fixed carbon by consuming other organisms or their derivatives.Animals, fungi and many prokaryotes and protists are heterotrophs.
Photosynthesis vs. Cell respiration
At the level of general reactions, photosynthesis and cellular respiration are almost opposite processes, although they only differ in the form of the energy absorbed or released, as shown in the following diagram.
At the level of individual steps, photosynthesis is not only cellular respiration upside down. On the contrary, as we will see in this section, photosynthesis takes place in its own unique series of steps. However, there are some notable similarities between photosynthesis and cellular respiration.
For example, photosynthesis and cellular respiration involve a series of redox reactions (involving the transfer of electrons). In cellular respiration, electrons flow from glucose to oxygen, water forms and energy is released. In photosynthesis, they go in the opposite direction, start in water and end in glucose, a process that requires energy and is driven by light. Like cell respiration, photosynthesis also uses an electron transport chain to form a concentration gradient of ATPA, T, P by chemosmosis.