Plants don't need a kitchen. They can make food for themselves. Imagine you're walking in the garden pictured on the right. Take a deep breath. Now let it out. What you just inhaled was a mixture of gases, but your body takes in the oxygen. What is exhaled is mainly carbon dioxide gas. Humans inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. The carbon in the carbon dioxide gas you just exhaled is the same carbon that plants use to make food and store energy. Let's review the general chemical equation for photosynthesis and cellular respiration. As you examine each, look carefully for relationships between the two.
Remember that all cells (plant cells too), must produce energy that their cells can use to take care of cellular business; most of the time this happens through the process of cellular respiration.
Do you see that this is the ultimate in recycling? Do you also see why understanding these two processes and figuring out ways to keep them in balance within an environment like the BioDome is exceedingly important? Let's Dig DeeperGrab your Travel Log. It is time to do a little research on the process of photosynthesis.
Web Resource: Illuminating Photosynthesis When you have completed this activity move on to the Travel Log tab.
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