Biology

1.1
In photosynthesis plants use
● Water, which they get from the soil
● Carbon dioxide, which they get from the air
● Energy, which they get from sunlight

Word equation for photosynthesis

Water+carbon dioxide -> glucose + oxygen

1.2
Photosynthesis provides energy, in the form of chemical energy from nutrients.
Plants use sunlight to make glucose and other carbohydrates
These carbohydrates contain some energy that originally was from the sunlight.

Why is photosynthesis important?

When animals eat food they get energy that plants capture
Photosynthesis provides oxygen for Earth’s atmosphere

Oxygen is a waste product of photosynthesis

Chloroplasts and Chlorophyll

Chlorophyll is kept inside chloroplasts, inside plant cells

Not all plant cells can photosynthesis since not all cells have chloroplast
Plants store carbohydrates as starch
They store the starch inside the chloroplasts in their cells.
A way you can check if a plant is photosynthesizing or not is to test for starch
Inside a leaf
Photosynthesis happens inside chloroplasts which are inside some parts of the cell in leaves
Chloroplasts are mostly inside the cells in the middle layer of the leaf, Leaves are very thin
so it is easy for sunlight to reach these cells.
Chloroplasts need lots of water and carbon dioxide
Waxy layer: stops cells from drying out
Upper epidermis: Protects the cells inside the leaf
The palisade layer: contains cells that do most of the photosynthesis
Vein: carries water to the cells in the leaf
Lower epidermis: protects the cells inside the leaf
Stoma: A tiny hole in the lower epidermis these holes let carbon dioxide in the air to get
inside the leaf
The spongy layer: has lots of air space. The cells in the spongy later do a small amount of
photosynthesis.

Magnesium is needed to make the green pigment. If a plant does not have enough
magnesium, its leaves look yellow instead of green and the plant do not grow very well.

Nitrate contains nitrogen atoms. These are needed so that the plant can convert
carbohydrates into proteins. Proteins are needed to make new cells so that the plant can
grow more normally

Plants use carbon dioxide from the air and use it in photosynthesis to make carbohydrates.

(Look at page 21)

1.3 carbon cycle

Respiration equation
glucose +oxygen = carbon dioxide +water

Fossil fuels and combustion

Fossil fuels contain carbon which comes from carbohydrates, fats, and proteins in dead
organisms. When we burn fossil fuel, the carbon in it combines with oxygen from the air
and forms carbon dioxide. This is called combustion

Greenhouse gas
Carbon dioxide and methane are greenhouse gases.
Carbon dioxide helps to keep the earth warm.
Without carbon dioxide, Earth would be frozen
It takes a long time to form fossil fuels and they can stay buried in the ground for millions of
years. We release carbon from fossil fuels into the air as carbon dioxide

Climate change in the past

Climate is the long-term pattern of temperatures, wind, and rainfall on Earth.

Ice age
About 2 billion years ago Earth had its first ice age and since then Earth has cycled between
relatively warm periods and relatively cold periods and there was no ice at all even at the
poles. But in colder periods there was ice in the poles.

Snowball Earth
About 650 million years ago the whole earth was covered with ice and snow and scientists
called this snowball earth or slushball earth.

Asteroids colliding with each other

470 million years ago, it has been claimed that two asteroids collided with one another
when they were in space. When they collided huge quantities of dust were produced. The
dust reduced the amount of light and heat from the sun reaching the Earth’s surface. This
triggered an ice age and Earth became colder.

Asteroids colliding with Earth

67 million years ago an asteroid collided with Earth and researchers have identified an area
on the coast of Mexico where the asteroid impact took place. There was a huge devastation
close to where the asteroid fell. It would have been like a massive bomb exploding, with
shock waves and very high temperatures spreading out from the crater

The collision affected the whole planet since it threw large quantities of rock and dust into
the air and it also would’ve created a tsunami which would;ve spread all across Earth’s
oceans.

Objects in space that are smaller than an asteroid: Meteoroids

When meteoroids enter Earth’s atmosphere they are called meteors
The parts of Meteoroids that do collide with Earth are called meteorites

The mean temperatures in Earth are increasing and this is caused bu an increase in Carbon
dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that traps heat
energy close to the Earth’s surface. When carbon dioxide concentrations increase more heat
is trapped.

Unit 4

4.1

How root hairs absorb water

Special cells called root hairs grow out of the surface of the roots. Root hairs provide a really
big surface through which water and mineral ions can be absorbed into the plant.

Each root hair is part of a single cell.

Water moves into the root hair cell from the soil. It passes through the cell wall and the cell
membrane of the cell and into the cytoplasm.

Mineral ions such as nitrate ions and magnesium ions are dissolved in the water between
the soil particles.

How water moves up the plant

In the center of a root hair cell contains xylem vessels. These are the water transport system
of the plant.

After water has been absorbed into a root hair cell. It moves from the outside of the root
toward the inside. It foes into the xylem vessels in the center of the root.

Xylem vessels are long, tube-like cells. They are dead cells. All their contents such as
cytoplasm and a nucleus have disappeared and all that is left is their cell walls and an empty
space inside.

XV stack on top of each other to make long empty tubes that reach from the roots to the
highest parts of a plant.
4.2

Why plants need water.

Water for support:
Water for transport: As water moves through xylem vessels, it carries mineral salts.
Water for cooling: When water evaporates it takes heat away with it. So when water
evaporates from the cell wall of a cell in a leaf, it cools the cell.
Water for photosynthesis: Water is a reactant in photosynthesis