Photosynthesis and the Carbon Cycle

Vocabulary flashcards covering the fundamentals of photosynthesis, mineral requirements in plants, the carbon cycle, and the mechanics and history of climate change.

Photosynthesis

The process by which green plants make their own food using sunlight.

Producers

Organisms, such as plants, that produce their own food.

Chlorophyll

A special green pigment found inside chloroplasts that absorbs energy from sunlight and helps plants make glucose.

Chloroplasts

Tiny structures found mainly in leaf cells where photosynthesis occurs.

Stomata

Tiny openings in leaves, usually in the lower epidermis, that allow gas exchange by letting carbon dioxide enter.

Word Equation for Photosynthesis

$$\text{Carbon dioxide} + \text{Water} \rightarrow \text{Glucose} + \text{Oxygen}$$

Glucose

The food produced during photosynthesis used for energy through respiration, growth, and building new cells.

Starch

The form in which plants store glucose for later use.

Waxy cuticle

A layer on the leaf surface that stops the leaf cells from drying out.

Palisade layer

A layer inside the leaf containing cells that perform most of the photosynthesis.

Spongy layer

A layer in the leaf with many air spaces where cells perform a small amount of photosynthesis.

Magnesium

A mineral needed by plants to make chlorophyll; deficiency leads to yellow leaves.

Chlorosis

The medical term for when plant leaves become yellow due to magnesium deficiency.

Nitrate

A mineral absorbed through roots needed to convert carbohydrates to proteins for growth, repair, and new cells.

Carbon Cycle

The continuous movement and recycling of carbon through the atmosphere, living organisms, oceans, soil, rocks, and fossil fuels.

Respiration

The process by which living organisms release energy from food, producing carbon dioxide and water as products: $\text{Food} + \text{Oxygen} \rightarrow \text{Energy} + \text{Carbon Dioxide} + \text{Water}$.

Decomposers

Organisms like bacteria and fungi that break down dead material, returning carbon dioxide to the atmosphere through respiration.

Fossil Fuels

Long-term carbon stores such as coal, oil, and natural gas formed from ancient living organisms buried under heat and pressure.

Combustion

The process of burning a fuel in oxygen, represented by the equation $\text{Carbon} + \text{Oxygen} \rightarrow \text{Carbon Dioxide}$, which returns stored carbon to the atmosphere.

Climate

The average weather conditions of a place over a long period of time, including temperature, rainfall, wind patterns, and humidity.

Greenhouse Gases

Gases in the atmosphere that trap heat, such as carbon dioxide ($CO_2$), methane ($CH_4$), water vapour, and nitrous oxide ($N_2O$).

Greenhouse Effect

The process where greenhouse gases trap heat to keep Earth warm enough for life.

Ice Age

A long period when much of Earth is covered by ice sheets and glaciers, characterized by lower global temperatures and lower sea levels.

Snowball Earth

A period about 650 million years ago when the whole Earth was covered with ice and snow, sometimes called 'Slushball Earth'.