Key words

Question	Answer
Autotroph	An organism that makes complex organic molecules from inorganic molecules using energy
Photoautotroph	Makes its own food using light energy and inorganic materials (CO2, H2O and minerals) by the process of photosynthesis.
Heterotroph	An organism that cannot make organic compounds from inorganic sources. It needs a ready made supply of organic compounds.
Omnivore	Consumes both plants and animals for food.
Photosynthesis	Process whereby light energy from the Sun is transformed into chemical energy, and used to synthesis larger (complex) organic molecules from inorganic substances.
Photosynthetic pigments	Light absorbing pigments in chloroplasts.
Photosystems	Light harvesting clusters of photosynthetic pigments.
Primary pigments	2 forms of chlorophyll a - with slightly different absorption peaks (680nm and 700 nm)
Accessory pigments	Other forms of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, carotenoids and xanthophyll's.
Stroma	Fluid part of the chloroplast which contains the enzymes controlling the carbon fixation reactions.
Photophosphorylation	The phosphorylation of ADP to form ATP using the energy of sunlight.
Absorption Spectrum	Graph that shows which wavelengths of light are absorbed by a pigment.
Action spectrum	Graph which shows the wavelengths of light that are actually used in photosynthesis.
ATP synthase	An enzyme that catalyses the synthesis of ATP.

Resource summary

	Created by ew19951 over 11 years ago