Plants are autotrophs. This means that to create energy, they use the sunlight. They make energy by using energy from the sun, carbon dioxide from the environment around them, and water from the air and from the ground. In return, they create glucose which they can convert into different kinds of energy. They also create oxygen which allows organisms to exist. In the light reaction, plants create NADPH and ATP which is energy that can be used to fuel the Calvin Cycle. Oxygen is created in the light reaction, and is one of the final products of photosynthesis. In the Calvin Cycle, three 5 carbon sugars called RuBp joins with 3 Carbon dioxides which have 1 carbon each. 3 RuBp + 3 C02= 18 Carbons. When they join with the help of rubisco, an enzyme, they create three 6 carbon sugars but instantaneously convert into six 3 carbon sugars because three 6 carbon sugars is very unstable. 6 ATP and 6 NADPH (from the Light Reaction) add to the six 3 carbon sugars. They then "give away" three carbons to create a PGAL on the side. It then continues to rearrange into 3 RuBP (with the help of ATP.) In conclusion, 3 C02 create 1 PGAL. 2 PGALs are needed to create glucose (6 carbon sugar.) So inorder to create glucose, the goal of photosynthesis, the cycle must be repeated twice.
The formula for photosynthesis is 3Co2 + 6H20-> C6H1206 + 602
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"They (plants) produce more than 90 billion metric tons each of organic matter and oxygen gas"
(BSCS Biology textbook page 121)
Everytime we take a deep breath in, we should thank plants for creating oxygen for us!
One factor that I think may influence the rate of photosynthesis is the environment. Depending on what kind of environment a plant lives in, the rate of diffusion can be larger or smaller.
Another factor that I think may influence the rate of photosynthesis is temperature. I predict that how much oxygen a plant can produce will depend on the temperature that is in.
