An Arborist told my daughter at school that trees breath carbon dioxide during the day time and oxygen at night. Any idea where I can find more information on this subject?
2007-01-08 08:49:03 · 5 answers · asked by Laurie 1 in Environment
To simplify I hope-
Plants take carbon dioxide and water and make sugar and oxygen.
The sugar produced may be converted to starches, suagrs, or fats.
Most of a plant is cellulose which is a type of starch.
When a plant cell uses energy it uses sugar and oxygen just like an animal, and gives off carbon dioxide.
This site is what you are asking for:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/biology/greenplantsasorganisms/0photosynthesisrev6.shtml
2007-01-08 10:39:44 · answer #1 · answered by bill h 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I dont think it changes at night. I dont see how it could. I will look into it more.
Trees absorbing Carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen is all apart of Photosynthesis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthesis
This process depends on the intensity of light. At night the light is not very intense at all and therefore I think the process slows down quite a bit. I dont see how it is possible for it to reverse.
However the response below mine does make sense, the process isnt being reversed. Rather more CO2 is being released than oxygen.
2007-01-08 08:57:27 · answer #2 · answered by E 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yup. They also do it during the day. Plants also use the simple sugars made during photosynthesis to power the rest of their cell processes, the process called respiration which takes place mostly in the mitochondria. Plant cells have both, chloroplasts and mitochondria. Photosynthesis takes place during the day and respiration takes place all the time. The irony is not that hard the digest so to speak if you understand that plants can produce more oxygen during photosynthesis than they ever produce during respiration.
2007-01-08 09:17:40 · answer #3 · answered by Ruben Z 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I heard that in school too. Plants produce oxygen by photosynthesis, which can only occur in sunlight.
Plants burn sugar to get energy just like animals do. Plants produce CO2 as a by product of their metabolism. Since they cannot produce O2 at night, then they release more CO2 at night than they consume.
2007-01-08 09:00:10 · answer #4 · answered by Randy G 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
never, the fold up and go under ground at night when no one's watching them then spring up right b4 we see them to start breathin again once the sun's out
2007-01-08 10:39:12 · answer #5 · answered by fancypantsy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋