Cells, More Cells, and the Flow of Energy Podcast Script. In this assignment, you will explain the basic components and energy flow of a cell in a written podcast scriipt containing three segments.
Cells, More Cells, and the Flow of Energy Podcast Script. In this assignment, you will explain the basic components and energy flow of a cell in a written podcast scriipt containing three segments.
A producer is any organism that performs photosynthesis.[9] Producers are important because they convert energy from the sun into a storable and usable chemical form of energy, glucose,[1] as well as oxygen.
The producers themselves can use the energy stored in glucose to perform cellular respiration. Or, if the producer is consumed by herbivores in the next trophic level, some of the energy is passed on up the pyramid.[1]
The glucose stored within producers serves as food for consumers, and so it is only through producers that consumers are able to access the sun’s energy.[1][7] Some examples of primary producers are algae, mosses, and other plants such as grasses, trees, and shrubs.[1]
Chemosynthetic bacteria perform a process similar to photosynthesis, but instead of energy from the sun they use energy stored in chemicals like hydrogen sulfide.[10][11]
This process, referred to as chemosynthesis, usually occurs deep in the ocean at hydrothermal vents that produce heat and chemicals such as hydrogen, hydrogen sulfide and methane.[10] Chemosynthetic bacteria can use the energy in the bonds of the hydrogen sulfide and oxygen to convert carbon dioxide to glucose, releasing water and sulfur in the process.[11]
Organisms that consume the chemosynthetic bacteria can take in the glucose and use oxygen to perform cellular respiration, similar to herbivores consuming producers.
One of the factors that controls primary production is the amount of energy that enters the producer(s), which can be measured using productivity.[12][13][1] Only one percent of solar energy enters the producer, the rest bounces off or moves through.[13] Gross primary productivity is the amount of energy the producer actually gets.[13][14]
Generally, 60% of the energy that enters the producer goes to the producer’s own respiration.[12] The net primary productivity is the amount that the plant retains after the amount that it used for cellular respiration is subtracted.
Another factor controlling primary production is organic/inorganic nutrient levels in the water or soil that the producer is living in.[14]