Factors Needed for Photosynthesis

• Chlorophyl in plant leaves is necessary for photosynthesis.a leaf image by timur1970 from Fotolia.com
  
  Photosynthesis is the chemical process that plants use to turn light energy into usable food energy in the form of glucose, a readily digestible sugar molecule. Accomplished through a series of chemical reactions that occur in both the light and the dark, the end result is an important basis of most food chains.
  
  

Sunlight

• Although a portion of photosynthesis occurs in the dark, sunlight is essential. It is the energy in the sunlight that the plants convert to make food. Because animals can not create their own food, they rely on plants and their ability to transform sunlight into ingestable glucose for food.
  
  

Chlorophyll

• Chlorophyll is the pigment in specialized organelles called chloroplasts that is responsible for photosynthesis. The chlorophyll absorbs the sunlight and processes it to make food for the plant and thus for the animals that consume it. There are four types of chlorophyll; a,b,c and d. Chlorophyll is also present in some microorganisms as well as some prokaryotic organisms.
  
  

Other Molecules

• Chlorophyll processes sunlight in the presence of carbon dioxide and water and releases oxygen as a waste product. The final product of photosynthesis is glucose, a six-carbon sugar. Sunlight processed in the chlorophyll allows for electrons to be transferred from water to carbon dioxide to create the energy-rich glucose molecules.