Question

Consumers eat glucose and provide plants with CO₂ through_____

Answer 1

Consumers, such as humans, intake glucose from plants and release CO₂ as a byproduct of cellular respiration. Plants then use that CO₂ in turn to synthesize glucose through the process of photosynthesis, which also produces oxygen.

Step-by-step explanation:

Consumers eat glucose and provide plants with CO₂ through the process of photosynthesis. When humans and other animals consume carbohydrates like glucose, which are derived from plants, they metabolize these compounds to obtain energy. This metabolic process is known as cellular respiration, and one of its byproducts is carbon dioxide (CO₂), which is exhaled into the atmosphere. Plants then use this carbon dioxide, along with water and sunlight, to produce glucose through photosynthesis. The overall process can be summarized as: 6 CO₂ + 6H₂O + sunlight energy → C6H12O6 + 6O2. Photosynthesis not only replenishes the oxygen necessary for the survival of animals and other non-photosynthetic organisms but also recycles the CO₂ produced by them.