The method by which green plants and some bacteria produce CARBOHYDRATE from water and carbon dioxide. They use energy absorbed from the sun’s rays by a green pigment in the organism called chlorophyll. Photosynthesis is one of the earth’s fundamental biological processes. As well as converting the carbon dioxide into the essential biological compound carbohydrate, the process removes the gas from the atmosphere where, if it builds to excess, the atmospheric temperature rises, thus contributing to global warming.
n. the process whereby green plants and some bacteria manufacture carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and water, using energy absorbed from sunlight by the green pigment chlorophyll. In green plants this complex process may be summarized thus:
a colourless gas formed in the tissues during metabolism and carried in the blood to the lungs, where it is exhaled (an increase in the concentration of this gas in the blood stimulates respiration). Carbon dioxide occurs in small amounts in the atmosphere; it is used by plants in the process of *photosynthesis. It forms a solid (dry ice) at –75°C (at atmospheric pressure) and in this form is used as a refrigerant. Formula: CO2.... carbon dioxide
n. one of a group of green pigments, found in all green plants and some bacteria, that absorb light to provide energy for the synthesis of carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and water (photosynthesis). The two major chlorophylls, a and b, consist of a porphyrin/magnesium complex.... chlorophyll
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