Photosynthesis Case

All of the oxygen in the world is made through the process of photosynthesis and all living things need this oxygen to live .The fact is all living creatures breathe oxygen and produce CO2 in exchange for it .The plants on our planet produce oxygen and need CO2 to be healthy, The exchange rate for oxygen and CO2 is through the process of photosynthesis and respiratory processes about a trillion kg per day. Most of the photosynthesis on the planet is done in the open oceans by oxygenic prokaryotes and without this process that is been done each and every day all the oxygen in our atmosphere would gone in a few thousand years.

There are two processes that happen on our planet 24/7/365 the thing that links them together is called the carbon cycle. The CO2 we produce in recycle in four main areas; atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere and oceans and other waterways in what are called "sinks" or reservoirs.

On the one side Carbon starts in the atmosphere as CO2 which enters the chain of life in the process of photosynthesis as we all know this is when plants and several types of algae take in sunlight carbon dioxide thought tiny pores in their leaves, and then plants then transform these substances into simple sugars like glucose. The plants use this glucose and the natural light of the sun to live, grow and reproduce each of these things done in its own time. The animals in turn eat the plants taking the carbon into their bodies. In the bodies of the animals and humans the sugars are again transformed this time into a high energy molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP) that supplies our cells with the energy we need to do what we do in our everyday lives.

The next step in the cycle is respiration, now most people think of this as just breathing but there is much more than that to respiration. If you talk to someone that has studied biology respiration is a process of oxygen being used to break down the organic compounds into both Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O). So breathing or respiration is taking in oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere so the cycle can begin all over again.

Aerobic Respiration produces a lot of ATP but sometimes cells when cells can't the oxygen, they need to produce energy in the way talked about above they used a different way to produce it , this way is called fermentation. This is a process where cells use the sugars they have with in them to produce ATP. The process used to produce energy without oxygen is called glycolysis.

Glycolysis is the breakdown of the sugar within the cells to pyruvic acid this happens mostly when we exercise to much by the muscle cells the pyruvic is then becomes lactic acid within our body or cells this is a good and a bad thing, good because our muscles get the energy that they need but bad because if energy is produced in this way for any length of time it causes cramping and our muscles to shut down.