Blog Post #1 - Photosynthesis

Introduction 

Today, I’m going to be talking about photosynthesis. Some say that "Photosynthesis is arguably the most important biological process on earth" (Gust, 1996). So why is it so important? This is what we are going to be exploring in my post today. I’ll discuss what photosynthesis is, why it’s important, and why it's important for us to know about it. 

Photosynthesis. What the heck is it? 

Contrary to this meme, photosynthesis is not a word used to describe someone's intelligence. Instead, photosynthesis is "The process of creating sugar and oxygen from carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight. It happens through a long series of chemical reactions, but it can be summarized like this: Carbon dioxide, water, and light go in. Glucose (a simple sugar), water, and oxygen come out" (Brookshire, 2020). This next photo shows, in an extremely simplified and cute way, the process of photosynthesis. 

Plants are a type of autotroph (an organism that can produce its own food) called photoautotrophs, which essentially means that they make their own food from the sun. As I mentioned earlier, oxygen is a byproduct of this process that is released. 

So why is it important?

One reason photosynthesis is important is because it provides oxygen for all life on Earth (Flügge et al., 2016). So without photosynthesis, we wouldn't have oxygen, and we of course cannot survive without that. Another reason it is important is because it also provides food for all of life (Janssen et al., 2014). The plants make their food through the process of photosynthesis, herbivores (plant eaters) get their energy from eating plants, omnivores (plant and meat eaters) get their energy from eating other plants and animals, and carnivores (meat eaters) get their energy from eating other animals. So no photosynthesis means no plants, which means no food source for most other organisms. 

So why is it important for us to know about it? 



As I mentioned before, our lives depend on photosynthesis since it provides oxygen and essentially our food. If we understand the process of photosynthesis, we can enhance our food production (Gust, 1996). And since plants depend on photosynthesis to survive, "Understanding the details of photosynthesis can lead to the design of new, extremely selective herbicides and plant growth regulators that have the potential of being environmentally safe" (Gust, 1996). So if we don't understand the process of photosynthesis, we could potentially cause problems during the process, and harm the plants. 

To Summarize 

Plants are photoautotrophs, essentially meaning that they produce their own food from the sun through the process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is a process that uses sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water, to produce sugar and oxygen. Photosynthesis is important because it provides oxygen and food, and it's important to know and understand photosynthesis because we could potentially enhance food production, and so we won't potentially cause harm to the plants by disrupting the process of photosynthesis, which in turn would disrupt our oxygen and food production. 

Honorable Mention Meme
(wasn't relevant, but still hilarious)

References

Brookshire, B. (2020, October 28). Explainer: How photosynthesis works. Science News Explores. https://www.snexplores.org/article/explainer-how-photosynthesis-works

Flügge, U., Westhoff, P., & Leister, D. (2016). Recent advances in understanding photosynthesis. F1000Research, 5. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.9744.1

Gust, D. (1996). Why study photosynthesis. The Center for Bioenergy & Photosynthesis | Center for Bioenergy & Photosynthesis. https://live-bioenergy.ws.asu.edu/content/why-study-photosynthesis

Janssen, P. J., Lambreva, M. D., Plumere, N., Bartolucci, C., Antonacci, A., Buonasera, K., Frese, R. N., Scognamiglio, V., & Rea, G. (2014). Photosynthesis at the forefront of a sustainable life. Frontiers in Chemistry, 2. https://doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2014.00036