By: Hanna Hall
Bio 4.2- Analyze the relationships between biochemical process and energy use in the cell.
Environmental scientists have concluded that the fundamental source of energy for most life on earth is the sun. Through photosynthesis, plants capture the light, converting it into chemical potential energy. Photosynthesis is the chemical process by which green plants convert sunlight into sugar. This process transforms a wave of light energy into chemical potential energy, which the plant then stores in the molecular bonds of sugar molecules.Plants then store the potential energy in the form of biomass (biological matter that fuels nearly every animal on earth).
Here is a picture of an energy pyramid or trophic level. Each level as it gets higher, has less energy than the level before.
- A sequence of chemical reactions transfers the sun’s light energy into the chemical bonds that hold together special, energy-carrying molecules (the most common of which are calledATP).
- The plant uses the stored chemical energy of ATP to make glucose from carbon dioxide. The plant then uses the glucose to make even larger compounds of cellulose and starch, which store energy.