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Chap 7: Photosynthesis
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26
Biology
11th Grade
10/06/2011

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Term
Photosynthesis
Definition
The process by which plants , autotrophic protists, and some bacteria use light energy to make sugars and other organic food molecules from carbon dioxide and water.
Term
Autotroph
Definition
An organism that makes its own food thereby sustaining itself without eating other organisms or their molecules. Plants, algae, and numerous bacteria are autotrophs
Term
Producers
Definition
An organism that amkes organic food molecules from CO2, H2O, and other inorganic raw materials: a plant, alga, or autotrophic prokaryote.
Term
Photoautotrophs
Definition
An organism that obtains energy from sunlight and carbon from CO2 by photosynthesis
Term
Chlorophyll
Definition
A green pigment located within the chloroplasts of plants, algae, and certain prokaryotes. Chlorophyll a can participate directly in the light reactions, which convert solar energy to chemical energy.
Term
Mesophyll
Definition
The green tissue in the interior of a leaf; a leaf's ground tissue system; the main site of photosynthesis.
Term
Stoma
Definition
A pore surrounded by guard cells in the epidermis of a leaf. When stomata are open, CO2 enters a leaf, and water and O2 exit. A plant converves water when its stomata are closed.
Term
Stroma
Definition
The fluid of the chloroplast surrounding the thylakoid membrane; involved in the synthesis of organic molecules from carbon dioxide and water; Sugars are made in teh stroma by the enzymes of the Calvin cycle.
Term
Thylakoids
Definition
One of a number of disk-shaped membranous sacs inside a chloroplast. Thylakoid membrane contain chlorophyll and the enzymes of the light reactions of photosynthesis. A stack of thylakoids is called a granum.
Term
Granum
Definition
A stack of hollow disks formed of thylakoid membrane in a chloroplast. Grana are the sites where light energy is trapped by chlorophyll and converted to chemical energy during the light reactions of photosynthesis.
Term
Light Reactions
Definition
The first of two stages in photosynthesis; the steps in which solar energy is absorbed and converted to chemical energy in the form of ATP and NADPH. The light reactions power the sugar-producing Calvin cycle but produce no sugar themselves.
Term
Calvin Cycle
Definition
The second of two stages of photosynthesis; a cyclic series of chemical reactions that occur in the stroma of a chloroplast, using the carbon in CO2 and the ATP and NADPH produced by the light reactions to make the energy-rich sugar-molecule G3P
Term
Carbon Fixation
Definition
The incorporation of carbon from atmospheric CO2 into the carbon in organic compounds. During photosynthesis in a C3 plant, carbon is fixed into a three-carbon sugar as it enters the Calvin cycle. In C4 and CA< plants, carbon is fixed into a four-carbon sugar.
Term
Electromagnetic Spectrum
Definition
The entire spectrum of radiation ranging in wavelength from less than a nanometer to more than a kilometer.
Term
Wavelength
Definition
The distance between crests of adjacent waves, such as those of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Term
Photon
Definition
A fixed quantity of light energy. The shorter the wavelength of light, the greater the energy of a photon.
Term
Photosystem
Definition
A light-capturing unit of a chloroplast's thylakoid membrane, consisting of a reaction center complex surrounded by numerous light-harvesting complexes.
Term
Reaction Center Complex
Definition
In a photosystem in a chloroplast, the chlorophyll a molecules and the primary electron acceptor that trigger the light reactions of photosynthesis. The chlorophyll donates an electron excited by light energy to the primary electron acceptor, which passes an electron to an electron transport chain.
Term
Photophosphorylation
Definition
The production of ATP by chemiosmosis during the light reactions of photosynthesis.
Term
C3 Plants
Definition
A plant that uses the Calvin cycle for the initial steps that incorporate CO2 into organic material, forming a three-carbon compound as the first stable intermediate
Term
Photorespiration
Definition
In a plant cell, the berakdown of a two- carbon compound produced by the Calvin cycle. The Calvin cycle produces the two carbon compound, instead of its usual three carbon product G3P, when leaf cells fix O2 instead of CO2. Photorespiration produces no sugar molecules or ATP.
Term
C4 plants
Definition
A plant that prefaces the Calvin cycle with reactions that incorporate CO2 into four-carbon compounds, the endproduct of which supplies CO2 for the Calvin cycle.
Term
CAM plants
Definition
A plant that uses an adaption for photosynthesis in arid conditions in which carbon dioxide entering open stomata during the night is converted to organic acids, which release CO2 for the Calvin cycle during the day, when stomata are closed.
Term
Greenhouse Effect
Definition
The warming of the atmosphere caused by CO2, CH4, and other gases that absorb infrared radiation and slow its escape from Earth's surface.
Term
Global Warming
Definition
A slow but steady rise in Earth's surface temperature, caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Term
6 CO2 + 6 H2O + Light Energy --> C6H12O6 +6 O2
Definition
Photosynthesis equation
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