Oxygen Cycles and The Food ChainUnit 2: Basic Plant Science

20 in 10 - PLANTS!!!

• Label a piece of paper 1-20

• In addition to consumption, plants serve other purposes as well…

• Come up with twenty items that you have used in the last several weeks that were made from or had plant products as one of the ingredients.

The Food Chain

• Who loves to eat!?!• What is your favorite food?

• Who knows what the food chain is or has seen a diagram of the food chain before?

• Do you know what is at the basis of the food chain?

The Food Chain

• Plants are the basis of the food chain for all living things.

• Plants are essential to life on earth.

The Food Chain

• The food chain can be divided into three categories: – Consumers

• Can not produce their own food so must eat other organisms for energy.

– Producers• Produce their own food. Like Plants!

– Decomposers• Eat decaying matter - dead plants and animals and in the

process they break them down and decompose them. When that happens, they release nutrients and mineral salts back into the soil - which then will be used by plants!

OXYGEN!!!

• We breathe in oxygen – The oxygen is absorbed into our blood cells– It goes through our body– It is used up– The leftovers are then converted to CO2 (carbon

dioxide) and released

• Plants provide the oxygen we breathe.

OXYGEN

• Plants balance the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air through two processes:– Transpiration– Respiration

• What if the elements were not balanced?

Photosynthesis

• Transpiration is a result of photosynthesis by which plants produce oxygen as a byproduct.

• Photosynthesis:– The process by which plants use light to produce

food for themselves.

• We will discuss this topic further later….

Transpiration & Respiration• Transpiration: – the process of releasing water vapor containing

oxygen in exchange for carbon dioxide.– Think of “perspiration” in humans! Sweat!

• Respiration: – the exact opposite of photosynthesis and

transpiration– Respiration is the process of using oxygen and

producing carbon dioxide.– The oxygen is used to breakdown and use food

resulting in the release of carbon dioxide, no light is required therefore this process occurs 24 hours a day

The Oxygen Cycle

• Plants carry out minimal respiration • BUT animals and humans respire with every

breath• When we respire, plants take in the carbon dioxide

and convert it to oxygen which is then released.• This entire process is called the Oxygen Cycle!

• What does it look like?

The Oxygen Cycle

ACTIVITY

• Create:– A chart of the Oxygen Cycle • Show the interaction between plants and humans

– A food chain including: (label each)• A decomposer• A producer• A primary consumer• A secondary consumer (eats the primary consumer)