Ace the Certified Arborist Test 2025 – Branch Out and Leaf Your Mark!

The process that combines carbon dioxide and water to produce sugars in the presence of light is photosynthesis. During photosynthesis, plants utilize sunlight as an energy source to convert carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil into glucose and oxygen. This process occurs primarily in the chloroplasts of plant cells, where the green pigment chlorophyll captures light energy. The overall equation for photosynthesis can be summarized as:

6 CO₂ (carbon dioxide) + 6 H₂O (water) + light energy → C₆H₁₂O₆ (glucose) + 6 O₂ (oxygen).

Photosynthesis is crucial for life on Earth as it not only provides food in the form of sugars for the plants themselves but also produces oxygen, which is essential for the survival of most living organisms.

Transpiration involves the movement of water through a plant and its evaporation from aerial parts, primarily leaves, which does not relate to the formation of sugars. Respiration is a metabolic process in which organisms convert sugars into energy, and condensation refers to the process of water vapor turning into liquid, neither of which involves the direct conversion of carbon dioxide and water into sugars in the context of light.