Photosynthesis, as it occurs?

Plants, algae and some microorganisms are phototrophs agencies because they capture light energy and used in the synthesis of carbohydrate such as glucose (formed from water and carbon dioxide). Photosynthesis is the process by which plants produce their food.

To perform photosynthesis plants need several items found in the environment.

Light energy: impacts on leaves and is absorbed by the photosensitive pigment of the plant, the chlorophyll.

Water: Photosynthesis requires a constant supply of water. It reaches the leaves through roots and stems.

Chlorophyll: Pigment green in the chloroplast. He is responsible for the absorption of light, to carry out photosynthesis.

Carbon dioxide: is absorbed by a few tiny pores called stomataon the lower part of the leaf.

Oxygen: byproduct of photosynthesis. Leaves leaves outward through the stomata.

Glucose, one of the foods they produce these agencies It is synthesized from carbon dioxide and water taken from the environment. Light energy triggers the entire process and oxygen is a waste that is released to the environment.

So the light energy can be used by plants, it must first be absorbed by them. Let's see how this happens.

On every floor we find plant pigments. Its function is absorb certain wavelengths of light, and - in his time - reflect others. The chlorophyll is one of the main pigments possessing plant. The chlorophyll absorbs light wavelengths corresponding to the violet colors, blue and red and reflects that correspond to the green. For this reason, many plants are green.

The plants have different types of chlorophyll. The chlorophyll to is the pigment that participates in the synthesis of food. Chlorophyll b and another group of pigments called carotenoids absorb wavelengths different from which absorbs the chlorophyll. These two pigments transferred power to the chlorophyll to. This phenomenon spans the spectrum of light available for photosynthesis.

The chlorophyll is found in distinct organelles in plant cells called chloroplasts, where photosynthesisoccurs. Each chloroplast there are a number of membranes containing photosynthetic pigments, the thylakoids.

In plants, the photosynthetic process occurs in two stages:

The slope of the light stage, pigments absorb wavelengths that "break" or break down molecules of water (H2O) which the vegetable incorporates the foreign environment. This stage are ion hydrogen (H +), participating in the next stage, and oxygen (O2) which is released into the environment as waste. Stage not slope of light, carbon dioxide (CO2) that the vegetable incorporates the external environment is combined with the resulting hydrogen (H +) ions in the previous stage. In this process energyis used, i.e. is an anabólica reaction and its product is glucose, a carbohydrate that stores the energy necessary for the life of plants.