Resource Number: 17113
Title: Tree Respiration Process: Advanced Tree Biology Manual (Part 2 of 3)
Description: Respiration concerns the transport, release, and use of energy stored in carbohydrate products of photosynthesis in order to grow, maintain, and defend tree life. Tree respiration can be considered the reverse of photosynthesis except for energy wasted through heat and non-sustaining processes. Tree respiration requires oxygen (O2) as a resource onto which to shift electrons. Breaking carbon-carbon bonds regenerates a significant amount of the original energy used to fix carbons together, and in so doing, releases CO2. Other materials are also produced.
Respiration allows energy of the sun to be transported to living cells which can not photosynthesize, are within a tree, or are underground. A leaf array 100 feet in the air can capture, stabilize and ship energy to be used 300 feet away from the stem base and 12 inches below the soil surface. Respiration is the platform which allows life to use carbon chains made in photosynthesis. All living cells in plants and animals respire, whether they have chloroplasts or not.
Last Updated: July 7, 2021
Contributors:
Domain(s)/Area(S):
- Trees
Locations:
| Subject |
|---|
| tree anatomy |