Nocturnal Plants

[Edher]

Hello,

Since plants secrete carbon dioxide at night and obsorve oxygen, how harmful is it to keep a plant in my room?

Edher

[biostudent84]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't photoperiod mostly affect reproduction?

[Poison]

All organisms do respiration all through the day and night. But photosynthetic organisms such as plants do photosynyhesis during day. that means plants always give out carbondioxide but the fact is that they give out oxygen only during the day. but if you think logically, the amount of carbondioxide given out is less than the amount of oxygen given out.
I also have plants in my room for years. the amount of oxygen they use is very little. to sum up it doesn't cause harm unless you turn your room into a forest.

[Poison]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't photoperiod mostly affect reproduction?

I'm not very sure but, doesn't reproduction mostly affected by cardon dioxide AND temperature?

[RobJim]

I think you guys are mistaken. Plants "breathe in" carbon dioxide and use the energy from sunlight to change it into sugars. In the process oxygen gas is liberated and the plant "breathes it out". Therefore there is no danger; the plants supply oxygen and use up carbon dioxide, not the other way around. They are kind of like the opposite of animals; they store energy into sugars, take in CO2, and give off O2, while animals take in O2, react it with sugars to liberate the energy the plant so thoughtfully stored in the sugar molecules, producing CO2 which is released back into the environment.

It kind of goes like this:

Sunlight + CO2 => [PLANT] => O2 + sugar => [ANIMAL] => CO2 + body heat

The whole system basically converts sunlight to body heat, changing CO2 to sugar and oxygen gas and back as part of the process.

[biostudent84]

I'm not very sure but, doesn't reproduction mostly affected by cardon dioxide AND temperature?

I never said anything contrary to this. Reproduction is mostly affected by carbon dioxide and temperature.

What I said was that of all things photoperiod affects, doesn't it affect reproduction the more than the other things it affects?

[biostudent84]

I think you guys are mistaken. Plants "breathe in" carbon dioxide and use the energy from sunlight to change it into sugars. In the process oxygen gas is liberated and the plant "breathes it out". Therefore there is no danger; the plants supply oxygen and use up carbon dioxide, not the other way around. They are kind of like the opposite of animals; they store energy into sugars, take in CO2, and give off O2, while animals take in O2, react it with sugars to liberate the energy the plant so thoughtfully stored in the sugar molecules, producing CO2 which is released back into the environment.

It kind of goes like this:

Sunlight + CO2 => [PLANT] => O2 + sugar => [ANIMAL] => CO2 + body heat

The whole system basically converts sunlight to body heat, changing CO2 to sugar and oxygen gas and back as part of the process.

Your reaction should be shown as such:

Sunlight + CO2 => [PLANT] => O2 + sugar => [ANIMAL] => CO2 + energy
Sunlight + CO2 => [PLANT] => O2 + sugar => [PLANT] => CO2 + energy

Plants still need to respire...and where you had "body heat" should be "energy." Body heat is more or less wasted energy from respiration. The energy that the body uses after respiration is stored chemically in Adenosine Triphosphate.

[mith]

RobJim, notice the question concerns only at night. During the day, plants use the light to do what you described, and they store the energy in sugar form. The reason is because there is no light at night and they use that sugar. When they do that it's simply respiration and they would produce C02. Our friend who posed the question is simply fearing the plants would use all the oxygen intake and suffocate him. I think that's not likely since I don't think anyone lives in an airtight jar.

[RobJim]

I see. You're right, mithril, plants do respirate like animals at night. However in a day/night cycle the plants create more oxygen than they use up, and use up more CO2 than they produce, so over the long term (a multiple of 24 hours, or a week or more) my equations were correct. The only way plants could suffocate you would be for you to put the plants in your bedroom at dusk, make the room airtight, and then have enough plants to use up all the oxygen in the room that you don't breathe, plus more. That's probably a lot of plants, and it assumes you gasproofed the room. If you live till morning, the plants will more than make up for what they used up that night, and they will continue to produce their own air supply every day, and make a little for you too.

Plants still need to respire...and where you had "body heat" should be "energy." Body heat is more or less wasted energy from respiration. The energy that the body uses after respiration is stored chemically in Adenosine Triphosphate.

Temporarily, but eventually it gets used up and gets expended as body heat, as well as heat produced from the friction of your feet on the ground, etc. The eventual destination for all that energy is heat of some kind or another. This is the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

[biostudent84]

Temporarily, but eventually it gets used up and gets expended as body heat, as well as heat produced from the friction of your feet on the ground, etc. The eventual destination for all that energy is heat of some kind or another. This is the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

Yes and no. Yes. All energy is destined to become heat energy...but not all energy in the body will become heat energy while still in the body. Heat energy released from the body is called waste heat...a result of inefficiency.

The main goal of the Kreb's Cycle, whether you want to accept it or not, is to convey the energy in the chemicals of Sugar and Oxygen, to place the energy into the chemical of Adenosine Triphosphate.

[nic]

i know this isnt exactly relevant to the discussion, but it got me thinking about something else. can plants photosynthesize under moonlight? i mean its basically sunlight right?

[thank.darwin]

Temporarily, but eventually it gets used up and gets expended as body heat, as well as heat produced from the friction of your feet on the ground, etc. The eventual destination for all that energy is heat of some kind or another. This is the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

Yes and no. Yes. All energy is destined to become heat energy...but not all energy in the body will become heat energy while still in the body. Heat energy released from the body is called waste heat...a result of inefficiency.

The main goal of the Kreb's Cycle, whether you want to accept it or not, is to convey the energy in the chemicals of Sugar and Oxygen, to place the energy into the chemical of Adenosine Triphosphate.

Thank- you biostudent84- the break down of any thing such as ATP isn't 100% efficient and some of the energy is lost as heat