All living beings need food in order to survive. Some organisms eat others to consume their food, and these are known as heterotrophs like humans and some animals. On the other hand, some living organisms like plants have to make their own food, and hence these organisms are referred to as autotrophs.
Let’s talk in detail about what photosynthesis is and how the process works.
Photosynthesis is the process by which organisms make up their own food by turning light from the sun into chemical energy, which is used as food. Many organisms make their foods through this process, including plants, algae and some particular types of bacteria.
Plants take in water and carbon dioxide through the soil and air. After receiving these essential components, plants turn them into glucose and oxygen, which are utilized by the plants as food.
When we are talking about photosynthesis in plants, there comes a certain chemical equation that is used to describe the process of photosynthesis.
An equation tends to describe how the chemical reaction went by when certain reactants were added to it and what products were produced as a result.
If we talk about a general chemical reaction, then this is the basic equation that explains the basic reaction.
Chemical reactants —-> Final products
Whenever we talk about a certain chemical reaction, there will be certain factors that will be used as the reactants in the process, just like we use ingredients while cooking something and similarly when the ingredients are mixed up and cooked well. This prepares up the product just like the final product in a chemical reaction.
In the process of photosynthesis, we talked about sunlight, carbon dioxide and water as the reactants or the ingredients that are used by plants in order to create the final product that is glucose and oxygen.
Let’s take a look at how these reactants come together to form up the food for living organisms:
Sunlight + Carbon dioxide + Water ———–> glucose + oxygen
                     6 (CO2)        6(H20)        C6H12O6    6O2
The above equation states how plants produce glucose and oxygen by bringing together sunlight, carbon dioxide and water as chemical reactants. It also tells about the number of reactants and products involved in the process.
When 6 molecules of carbon dioxide and six molecules of water come in contact with sunlight, then the resulting products are a molecule of glucose with 6 molecules of oxygen.
Now that we know which reactants are involved in the process of photosynthesis, now let’s talk about how and from where these reactants come from for the plants to utilize.
Carbon dioxide and water are two main reactants involved in the process of photosynthesis. Plants utilize carbon dioxide after receiving it from the air. There are stomata present on the surface of plant leaves. Some plants have stomata on both sides of leaves, while some only have a single side stoma. This part of the plant leaf helps it to utilize carbon dioxide from the air.
On the other hand, when a plant needs water, it gets it from the soil it is present in. the soil below the plant has water flowing.
Plants contain vascular bundles which have xylem and phloem in them. The xylem and phloem are responsible for taking up water and food for the plants, respectively.
In this way, the xylem is responsible for taking up the water from the soil to the plant body in order for the plant to use the water for the process of photosynthesis.
On the other hand, light is required as well for the two elements to be properly used for the photosynthesis process. Plants have specialized cells that contain different pigments. These pigments are responsible for absorbing different colors of lights with different wavelengths. The most common pigment is chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is known to send back the green light coming in, but it absorbs other lights like red and blue from the sun.
During these reactions, high-energy molecules are produced. These molecules include NADPH and ADP. Water molecules are broken down, which further leads to the formation of these high-energy molecules.
Since the final products produced during photosynthesis are oxygen and glucose, both of them serve different purposes for the plants. Oxygen comes from the breakdown of water molecules. The hydrogen molecules are utilized in the process for high-energy molecules, but the oxygen is a waste product. It is released in the form of a waste product as oxygen gas.
The oxygen that is released as a waste product by the plants is actually utilized by other organisms like humans and animals, who require oxygen from the air for the process of respiration.
The process of photosynthesis is a controlled process that is based on several factors that influence it. Some of these factors stimulate the rate of the process while others simply inhibit it. Here we have talked about some of the main factors that influence or limit the process of photosynthesis.
