The original energy from the Sun is captured through photosynthesis and stored in chemical bonds as plants grow. This energy is then released millions of years later after these plants have transformed into fossil fuels. All fossil fuels are ultimately energy from sunlight.

Photosynthesis makes the glucose that is used in cellular respiration to make ATP. The glucose is then turned back into carbon dioxide, which is used in photosynthesis.

How Do Chloroplasts Capture Energy from the Sun? Plant cells can use this process to manufacture glucose, a simple sugar. Some of the glucose is used immediately for cellular respiration, where it is converted to a high energy compound called ATP.

Chloroplasts absorb sunlight and use it in conjunction with water and carbon dioxide gas to produce food for the plant. Chloroplasts capture light energy from the sun to produce the free energy stored in ATP and NADPH through a process called photosynthesis.

What pathway moves the electrons from water through PS II to PS I and then on to NADP+? – This occurs in the noncyclic electron pathway of the light reactions. The light reactions could be viewed as analogous to a hydro-electric dam.

The hydrogen ions play critical roles in the remainder of the light-dependent reactions. As the electron passes along these proteins, energy from the electron fuels membrane pumps that actively move hydrogen ions against their concentration gradient from the stroma into the thylakoid space.

Terms in this set (7)

• (1st Time) Energy is absorbed from the sun.
• Water is broken down.
• Hydrogen ions are transported across the thylakoid membrane.
• (2nd Time) Energy is absorbed from the sun.
• NADPH is produced from NADP+.
• Hydrogen ions diffuse through the protein channel.
• ADP becomes ATP.

The exergonic light-dependent reactions of photosynthesis convert light energy into chemical energy, producing ATP and NADPH. These reactions occur in the thylakoids of the chloroplasts. The products of the light-dependent reactions, ATP and NADPH, are both required for the endergonic light-independent reactions.

The overall function of light-dependent reactions, the first stage of photosynthesis, is to convert solar energy into chemical energy in the form of NADPH and ATP, which are used in light-independent reactions and fuel the assembly of sugar molecules.

The two main multi-subunit membrane protein complexes differ in their absorbing wavelength, where the photosystem I or PS 1 absorbs the longer wavelength of light which is 700 nm while photosystem II or PS 2 absorbs the shorter wavelength of light 680 nm.

Which of the following is NOT a step in the light-dependent reactions? Answer: ATP, NADPH and oxygen gas.

The light reactions capture energy from sunlight, which they change to chemical energy that is stored in molecules of NADPH and ATP. The light reactions also release oxygen gas as a waste product.

Photolysis of water observes release of oxygen, as a by-product, and release of hydrogen. During photosynthesis when chlorophyll is left by its electrons, the place where the electrons were is left with a hole, which is filled by oxidised water. When this oxidised water splits, it releases oxygen and hydrogen.

Plants cannot carry out photosynthesis in moonlight because it does not carry enough energy to excite chlorophyll molecule, i.e., reaction centres PS I and PS II, so light dependent reactions does not get initiate. Thus, no photosynthesis occurs in presence of moonlight.

They do absorb moonlight, but even a full moon is about 1/400,000 times the brightness of the sun. The energy plants get for photosynthesis from moonlight is tiny and makes no real difference to their growth.

In conclusion, moonlight is subtle—typically, even at its peak, only about 15% as strong as sunlight. Most plants seem to need a rhythmic exposure to moonlight—at least for a week or so around the full moon—for optimal immunity, wound healing, regeneration, and growth.

The amount of moonlight at different times also influences the growth of plants. As the moonlight increases (new moon and second quarter), this stimulates leaf growth. After the full moon, the moonlight decreases, putting energy into the plant roots. At other times, these natural forces create a rest period for plants.

“Flowering bulbs and vegetables that bear crops below ground should be planted during the DARK of the Moon,” says the 1991 Old Farmer’s Almanac. “That is, from the day after it is full to the day before it is new again.”

(Many common weed seeds also germinate better when exposed to light, so the full moon could be a good indication that it’s time to bring out the hoe and take care of the tiny weed seedlings.) Proponents believe that root crops are best planted during the waning moon (going from full moon to new moon).

Lunar water is water that is present on the Moon. Diffuse water molecules can persist at the Moon’s sunlit surface, as discovered by NASA’s SOFIA observatory in 2020. Gradually water vapor is decomposed by sunlight, leaving hydrogen and oxygen lost to outer space.

Scientists using NASA’s telescope on an airplane, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, discovered water on a sunlit surface of the Moon for the first time. Molecular water, H2O, was found in Clavius Crater, one of the largest craters visible from Earth in the Moon’s southern hemisphere.