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6 H 2 O + 6 CO 2 gt; C 6 H 12 O 6 + 6 O 2 Six molecules of water plus six molecules of carbon dioxide produce one molecule of sugar plus six molecules of oxygen Photosynthesis is the process that green plants and certain other organisms use to change carbon dioxide and water into glucose (sugar) using the suns energy. Photosynthesis provides the basic energy source for practically all living organisms. A very important byproduct of photosynthesis is oxygen, which we cant live without. Photosynthesis occurs in green plants, seaweeds, algae, and certain bacteria. These organisms are major sugar factories, producing millions of new glucose molecules per second. Plants use the glucose, a carbohydrate, as a source of energy to grow leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds.
They also change glucose to cellulose, the structural material used in their cell walls. Most plants produce more glucose than they use so it gets stored in the form of starch and other carbohydrates in their roots, stems, and leaves. The plants can use the stored starch later to help them grow. Plants are the only photosynthetic organisms to have leaves (not all plants have leaves). A leaf is a major solar collector crammed full of photosynthetic cells.
The water and carbon dioxide come into the cells of the leaf, and the products of photosynthesis, sugar and oxygen, leave the leaf. Water enters the root and is moved up to the leaves through cells known as xylem. Land plants can dry out fast so they have a special opening called a stomata, this lets gas in and out of the leaf. Carbon dioxide cannot pass through the protective waxy layer covering the leaf (cuticle), but it can enter the leaf through the stomata.
Oxygen that is produced during photosynthesis can only pass out of the leaf through the opened stomata. Humans and other animals depend on glucose as an energy source, but they cant make it on their own so they must rely on the glucose produced by plants. The oxygen that humans and animals breathe is the oxygen released during photosynthesis. Humans also depend on ancient products of photosynthesis, known as fossil fuels. Without fossil fuels we wouldnt have natural gas, coal or petroleum. Fossil fuels are made up of a mixed up group of hydrocarbons, which are the remains of organisms that relied on photosynthesis millions of years ago.
Without photosynthesis there would be no life on earth because we wouldnt have food, energy or oxygen. This makes photosynthesis a pretty important process! Plant photosynthesis occurs in the leaves and green stems in cell structures called the chloroplasts. One plant leaf is made up of tens of thousands of cells, and each cell contains about 40 to 50 chloroplasts. The chloroplast is divided by membranes into a bunch of sections called thylakoids.
The thylakoids are stacked on top of each other like pancakes. A stack of thylakoids is called a grand that lays a fluid called the stroma... Inside the membranes of the thylakoids are hundreds of molecules of chlorophyll, the light-trapping pigment that gives the leaves their color, and is very important in the whole process of photosynthesis. The Photosynthesis process has been broken into two stages because it is so complex. Stage one is called the light dependent reaction, and stage two is called the light independent reaction, it used to be called the dark reaction. During stage one the chloroplast traps light energy and changes it into chemical energy contained in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP), two molecules used in the second stage of photosynthesis.
In stage two the NADPH provides the hydrogen atoms that help form glucose, and ATP provides the energy for this and other reactions used to make glucose. Both of these stages put together mean To Build With Light photosynthesis.
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Research essay sample on Photosynthesis Changing Carbon Dioxide And Water To Sugars
