Carbon Cycle |
Photosynthesis |
Cellular Respiration |
The Carbon Cycle is a cycle which involves carbon, photosynthesis, cellular respiration, and decomposers. It starts with the carbon dioxide in the air. This carbon dioxide, along with water, is then used by a plant in photosynthesis to make glucose. After a consumer eats this plant, it takes in the glucose, or breathes in the oxygen the plant gives out and breathes out carbon dioxide. to restart the cycle. But that's not all, when the organisms in the cycle die, they are decomposed, and the carbon is returned to the earth and makes fossil fuels.
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Photosynthesis is a process in which plants use sunlight to produce energy. The plant absorbs energy from sunlight in the chlorophyll which is in the chloroplast, which is in the cells of the plant's leaf. Photosynthesis has the light phase, or daytime, where it absorbs sunlight, and the dark phase, or nighttime, where it transforms light into energy. The dark phase is also sometimes called the Calvin cycle.
The photosynthesis equation is: carbon dioxide + water -transformed by light energy- into glucose + oxygen. |
Cellular Respiration is the process in which organisms turn their energy into food. All organisms do this. But the producers make their own energy through photosynthesis first, and the consumers get energy by consuming other organisms. The equation for cellular respiration is the exact opposite of the equation for photosynthesis. It is what returns carbon to the air in the carbon cycle.
The cellular respiration equation is: glucose + oxygen -turned into- carbon dioxide + water + energy. |