Photosynthesis plays a major role on earth.

As all the plants prepare food with the help of

photosynthesis. All the living beings depend directly or indirectly depend on plants for their food. As
plants prepare food with the help of sun light, carbon dioxude, water, chlorophyll in the process of
photosynthesia. So if photosynthesis stops the n all the living beings on earth cant survive.

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We’d run out of oxygen eventually. I honestly have no idea how long this would take.

Maybe we’d run out of fresh food first? With no photosynthesis no plants would grow, no
animals would be able to eat grass or other plants. I suppose we’d have mushrooms to eat, as
they fed on the decaying plant tissue!

 Plants would die, and atmospheric oxygen levels on the planet would fall, and carbon
dioxide levels would rise.

Global warming would accelerate, and most animals (including us) would die due to
suffocation.

Not a nice thought.

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Sam Horrell answered on 19 Jun 2013:

The apocalypse. No photosynthesis means no plants and without plants we’re in big trouble.

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Susana Teixeira answered on 20 Jun 2013:

We’d be doomed. Obviously photosynthetic plants would die, so they would not be able to
filtre our air and give us the oxygen we need. We’d run out of food quickly too, but probably
suffocate first…

Plants are all around us. It is easy to become accustomed to their presence. But, imagine a
world without lush green grasses and trees - a planet blanketed in desert. Could we survive?
Plants are an integral part of our environment, and provide the food, oxygen and fibers we
depend on for survival. And their ability to photosynthesize is one of nature's most amazing
and essential phenomenons.

This is something Alessia Para Gallio, research assistant professor at Northwestern and at
the Chicago Botanic Garden, knows well. She completed her master's degree in Biological
Science at the University of Pavia, Italy, and received her Ph.D. degree in Physiological
Botany from Uppsala University, Sweden, with a thesis on plant development. Her
current research interests include the circadian clock and mineral nutrition in plants.

Science in Society spoke with Para Gallio about the importance of photosynthesis, and the
role it plays in her research.

On a basic level, what is photosynthesis?

Photosynthesis is the process by which light energy from the sun is absorbed and converted
into organic compounds. Organic compounds are basically different forms of sugar. They are
metabolized and then energy is extracted from them. And these forms of energy can then be
used by biological systems like us, for example, and animals in general.

What happens when pigments absorb the sunlight?

Pigments are special molecules that are involved in harvesting light from the sun. When you
shine light on a pigment, the absorption of photons can energize electrons and make them
move from a low to a higher energy state. To return to the low energy state, energy is quickly
given off as heat, light, phosphorescence or, in the care of photosynthetic pigments, it can be
transferred to another pigment molecule like chlorophyll.

What role does chlorophyll play?

Chlorophyll is probably the most important light-absorbing pigment, not only in plants, but
also in algae and bacteria. When chlorophyll gets excited, it releases an electron to an
electron acceptor, initiating an electron transport chain. This means that electrons are
transferred from donor (reductant) to acceptor (oxidant), which has a slightly lower energy
level.
During the electron transfer, protons (i.e. hydrogen ions) are pumped across the membrane of
chloroplasts, the specialized organelles where photosynthesis takes place. Therefore,
chloroplasts work as little batteries, with a different potential on each side, and this difference
is used to create energy.

Why is photosynthesis important? What would happen if we didn’t have it?

Plants, algae and bacteria are the only organisms that can harvest sunlight and use the energy
to convert CO2 (carbon dioxide) to organic material. Carbon dioxide is one of the major air
pollutants, so photosynthetic organisms are actually keeping the air clean. In the process, they
produce oxygen, which constitutes a significant portion of the air we breathe so less plants
means less recycling of carbon dioxide and less oxygen production. Plants also give us food
and fibers to make clothes and without photosynthesis, we would not be able to sustain the
life we are living.

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What role does photosynthesis play in your research?

I’m interested in two main topics. One is plant mineral nutrition in general and nitrogen in
particular. Nitrogen metabolism is tightly linked to photosynthesis because one of the
products of the assimilation of nitrogen, glutamate, is the source of chlorophyll. And the
sugars that are produced by photosynthesis are used to make glutamate and other amino
acids.

One of the first signs of nitrogen deficiency is chlorosis, a condition in which leaves turn
yellow because there is not enough nitrogen to make glutamate. Hence, there is not enough
chlorophyll.

The other topic I’m very interested in is plant circadian clocks, and the way the circadian
clock regulates many different aspects of plant development and metabolism.

And one of the processes that is under very tight circadian regulation is photosynthesis. What
the circadian clock does is to prepare the organism for whatever is coming next. So, before
dawn, all the genes that are required for photosynthesis are turned on so as soon as there is
light (sunrise) the process is ready to start. So, there is no lag time between when the sun
comes up and when plants are ready to use the light from it.

Similarly, before we wake up, we need our adrenaline to go up, and the levels of some
hormones to change, and sugars to get into circulation. So when the alarm clock goes off we
are ready to go. And some studies suggest that without circadian clock we would have a heart
attack every time we wake up because we would not be ready for it.

So that’s the advantage of having a circadian clock. You are ready for whatever is coming
next, if whatever is coming next is happening every day.

So, plants and humans have a similar circadian clock?

Yes, the molecular architecture is different but the function is the same, that is to adapt to a
life on a planet that has a 24-hour rotation period, and cycles of light and dark that alternate.
How does the weather affect photosynthesis?

Photosynthesis is very sensitive to light intensity. So, in general, the system shuts down at
noon, or at the peak of the hottest hours of the day, because too much energy from the sun
can damage biological structure. So, it will cause a lot of electrons to go around and they then
become very poisonous to biological structures. So they want to make sure that they use a
light intensity that is suitable. And when it’s just too much the system shuts down.

In the winter, when there aren’t leaves on the trees, what happens to our oxygen
supply?

I don’t believe that we breathe only the oxygen that is produced where we live. For example,
the Amazon is producing a lot of oxygen and eventually it gets to us as well. So, we are not
dependent only on the plants that are around us. We are dependent on the amount of plants on
the planet, on earth.

Have scientists come up with a way to replicate the process of photosynthesis?

It has been a challenge for many years, and many labs have taken this challenge up. But,
recently, there was a group at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm that managed
to produce a catalyst that is able to use sunlight to split water into oxygen as photosynthesis
does.

The importance of this discovery is not only related to oxygen. When you split water there is
also the production of hydrogen, and this is really important for the urgency that we have to
find alternatives sources of renewable energy.

So, if they get this to work correctly, they could use it to produce renewable energy?

Yes. The most important thing is that the initial source of these hydrogen ions is the sun,
which is infinite.

Photosynthesis is one of the great inventions of nature that we are trying first to understand,
and then somehow to replicate. But, most of the time we manage to understand it, but
replicating it is kind of difficult.

It's a concept most children learn in science class: Photosynthesis converts light energy to
chemical energy. Essentially, photosynthesis is the fueling process that allows plants and
even algae to survive and grow. So what would happen if photosynthesis suddenly stopped
happening?

If photosynthesis came to an abrupt end, most plants would die within short order. Although
they could hold out for a few days -- or in some cases, a few weeks -- how long they lived
would largely be a factor of how much sugar they had stored within their cells. Large trees,
for example, may be able to soldier on for several years — perhaps even a few decades
— because of their energy stores and the slow rate of use. However, the majority of plants
would meet a withering end, and so would the animals that rely on them for nourishment.
With all the herbivores dead, the omnivores and carnivores would soon follow. Although
these meat-eaters could feed on all the carcasses strewn about, that supply wouldn't last more
than a few days. Then the animals that temporarily relied on them for sustenance would die.

That's because for photosynthesis to cease to exist, Earth would have to plunge into darkness.
To do this, the sun would have to disappear and plunge Earth's surface temperatures into a
never-ending winter of bitter cold temperatures. Within a year, it would bottom out at minus
100 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 73 degrees Celsius), resulting in a planet of purely frozen
tundra [source: Otterbein].

Ironically, if the sun burned too bright, it could cause photosynthesis to stop occurring. Too
much light energy would damage plants' biological structure and prevent photosynthesis from
happening. This is why the photosynthetic process, in general, shuts down during the hottest
hours of the day.

Whether the culprit were too much sunlight or not enough, if photosynthesis stopped, plants
would stop converting carbon dioxide -- an air pollutant -- to organic material. Right now, we
rely on photosynthetic plants, algae and even bacteria to recycle our air. Without them, there
would be less oxygen production [source: Hubbard].

Even if all the plants on Earth were to die, people would remain resourceful -- especially if
their lives depended on it. An artificial photosynthesis process being developed by scientists
could just become the world's biggest problem-solver. Using an artificial "leaf," scientists
have successfully harnessed sunlight and recreated photosynthesis. The leaf is actually a
silicon solar cell that, when put in water and exposed to light, then generates oxygen bubbles
from one side and hydrogen bubbles from the other -- essentially splitting oxygen and
hydrogen. Although the idea was designed as a way to potentially produce clean energy, there
are implications for recreating a photosynthetic atmosphere as well