Carbon Dioxide-Oxygen Cycle

Consumers

Animals, including humans, that eat, or consume, plants or other animals.

Chemical Energy

Energy from the sun is stored as chemical energy in sugar molecules.

Producers

Green plants that make their own food through a process called photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis

Is a process by which plants, algae, and certain microorganisms transform light energy from the sun into the chemical energy of food.

Ozone

It shields the Earth's surface from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays.

Sun

Its heat causes water on the Earth's surface to evaporate and form clouds that eventually provide fresh rainwater.

Carbon Dioxide

Makes up about 0.03 percent of the air. Plants and animals depend upon it for life. Consists of one atom of carbon and two atoms of oxygen. Its chemical formula is CO2.

Carbon Dioxide-Oxygen Cycle

Plants use carbon dioxide in a process known as photosynthesis. During photosynthesis, plants give off oxygen as a waste product. Carbon dioxide moves from the air into the leaves of plants through tiny openings in the plant's leaves.

Solar Energy

Solar energy is the source of energy for photosynthesis. It provides the warmth necessary for plants and animals to survive.

Carbon Cycle

The complex path that carbon follows through the atmosphere, oceans, and soil; through plants and animals; and through fossil fuel formation and use.

Oxygen

The most abundant element on Earth is oxygen (chemical symbol O), and it is essential to all the planet's life forms. As the gas O2 it is in the lower atmosphere in the air that is breathed.

Cellular Respiration

The process by which organisms use oxygen to break down food molecules to get chemical energy for cell functions.