Carbohydrates are made from the process of photosynthesis by green plants by use on energy from sunlight. They have various functions in the ecosystem by plants an animals. The two main function of carbohydrates are; carbohydrates as a source of energy for cellular activities. They are reserves and stored in form of starch in plants and inform of glycogen in animals. They also act as structural components in both plants and animals such as cellulose which is a components of plant cells.
The ecosystem encompasses biological organisms in relation with their physical environment. Carbohydrates are one of the four major biomolecules on earth. They are organic molecules composed of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen in their structure. Carbohydrates perform varying functions for the biotic components of the ecosystem. Two of them includes; 1) Serves as energy source for living organisms 2) An important component of other structures in living cells.
All living organisms require energy for their life processes. This energy is obtained by breaking down food ingested by the organism. The ingested food by plants and animals are stored as stated and glycogen respectively, which are both carbohydrates. These two forms are later converted to a simple carbohydrate called glucose, where it is used in the process of CELLULAR RESPIRATION to yield energy in form of ATP for the organism.
Also, Carbohydrates are major components of the genetic material possessed by all living organisms. Living organisms store their genetic information as genetic materials in form of DNA or RNA, which are both nucleic acids. The carbohydrate components of these nucleic acids is present in their building blocks called NUCLEOTIDE. A nuceleotide consists of ribose (RNA) or deoxyribose (DNA), which are both carbohydrates containing five carbons, as one of its three components.
If the comet were to strike the planet, the impact energy would be about 300 times that of the asteroid collision that was thought to have caused the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction that killed the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago.
