83 Critical Thinking Questions

21. What is the overall outcome of the light reactions in photosynthesis?

22. Why are carnivores, such as lions, dependent on photosynthesis to survive?

23. Why are energy carriers thought of as either “full” or “empty”?

24. Describe how the grey wolf population would be impacted by a volcanic eruption that spewed a dense ash cloud that blocked sunlight in a section of Yellowstone National Park.

25. How does the closing of the stomata limit photosynthesis?

26. Describe the pathway of electron transfer from photosystem II to photosystem I in light-dependent reactions.

27. What are the roles of ATP and NADPH in photosynthesis?

28. How and why would the end products of photosynthesis be changed if a plant had a mutation that eliminated its photosystem II complex?

29. Why is the third stage of the Calvin cycle called the regeneration stage?

30. Which part of the light-independent reactions would be affected if a cell could not produce the enzyme RuBisCO?

31. Why does it take three turns of the Calvin cycle to produce G3P, the initial product of photosynthesis?

32. Imagine a sealed terrarium containing a plant and a beetle. How does each organism provide resources for the other? Could each organism survive if it was the only living thing in the terrarium? Why or why not?

33. Compare the flow of energy with the flow of nutrients in a closed, sunny ecosystem consisting of a giraffe and a tree.