Final answer:
Anaerobic respiration, including processes like fermentation, is a type of cellular respiration that operates without oxygen and produces significantly less ATP per glucose molecule compared to aerobic respiration.
Step-by-step explanation:
The type of respiration that does not harvest as much energy from glucose is anaerobic respiration. This type of cellular respiration, such as fermentation, does not require oxygen, and it is less efficient at producing ATP when compared to aerobic respiration. While aerobic respiration can produce approximately 36 ATP from one molecule of glucose, anaerobic respiration yields only about 2 ATP per glucose molecule.
Anaerobic respiration has advantages, despite its lower ATP yield. It is much faster, which can be crucial for organisms or cells in environments where oxygen is scarce. Fermentation is a process under anaerobic respiration where cells convert glucose to either lactic acid or ethanol, depending on the organism, to recycle NADH back into NAD+ that is essential for the continuation of glycolysis.
Glycolysis, the first stage of cellular respiration, occurs in both aerobic and anaerobic conditions and is the pathway in which one glucose molecule is transformed into two pyruvate molecules, with a net production of 2 ATP and 2 NADH from the initial investment of 2 ATP.