BIOL 1002 Chapter : Chapter 21 Study Guide
Document Summary
Plants capture energy that other organisms can use. Through photosynthesis, plants provide food, directly or indirectly, for all non-photosynthetic organisms. Plants help maintain the atmosphere; plants produce oxygen gas as a by-product of photosynthesis: explain how plants build soil. Dead plant material is decomposed into organic matter, helping make soil more fertile. Plants take up and store water from soil, slowing the rate at which water escapes land-based ecosystems. It also slows the rate of flooding: explain how plants provide humans with necessities and luxuries. Aspirin, the malaria drug quinine, and pain-killers such as morphine and codeine. The ancestors of plants were photosynthetic protists such as the freshwater green algae called stoneworts. Plants and green algae have similar dna and use the same type of chlorophyll and accessory pigments in photosynthesis. The invasion of the land brought many advantages to plants. The development of roots that anchor the plant and absorb nutrients from the soil.
