Ok, from the time I was a little kid I knew that:
1) Plants do the photosynthesis thing which to me was basically sunlight + green = plant grow.
2) Plants take in Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and release Oxygen
3) Plants need dirt (nutrients) in their roots to grow
That kinda was the limits of my botany / chemistry knowledge (I'm more of a physics guy)
I always assumed that plants got everything they needed to create "mass" from the ground and the energy to process it from the Sun.
Well, we have some really large Sycamore trees in our front yard. The mass in the wood is pretty major and every Fall when I'm picking up all the tons of leaves I find even more physical matter. I always wondered why the ground had not settled around the root system of the tree... I mean, it was taking all the stuff out of the ground to build up the bulk of the tree, right? Since you can't destroy / create matter, I was expecting that over time the level of dirt would sink.
I was watching a show about either trees or carbon or something and it discussed how trees (and this is important) take the CO2 and with the energy from the sunlight convert it into carbohydrates, i.e., the mass of the tree!
So, if I'm understanding correctly, the majority of the tree mass (not including the water content) comes from the air!?! The trees are grabbing the CO2 gas and with the energy of the sun are splitting the carbon (basis for all living things) and creating most of the mass of the tree. So, that would explain why the soil isn't sinking!
Some good reads:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthesis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_cycle
1) Plants do the photosynthesis thing which to me was basically sunlight + green = plant grow.
2) Plants take in Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and release Oxygen
3) Plants need dirt (nutrients) in their roots to grow
That kinda was the limits of my botany / chemistry knowledge (I'm more of a physics guy)
I always assumed that plants got everything they needed to create "mass" from the ground and the energy to process it from the Sun.
Well, we have some really large Sycamore trees in our front yard. The mass in the wood is pretty major and every Fall when I'm picking up all the tons of leaves I find even more physical matter. I always wondered why the ground had not settled around the root system of the tree... I mean, it was taking all the stuff out of the ground to build up the bulk of the tree, right? Since you can't destroy / create matter, I was expecting that over time the level of dirt would sink.
I was watching a show about either trees or carbon or something and it discussed how trees (and this is important) take the CO2 and with the energy from the sunlight convert it into carbohydrates, i.e., the mass of the tree!
So, if I'm understanding correctly, the majority of the tree mass (not including the water content) comes from the air!?! The trees are grabbing the CO2 gas and with the energy of the sun are splitting the carbon (basis for all living things) and creating most of the mass of the tree. So, that would explain why the soil isn't sinking!
Some good reads:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthesis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_cycle