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Oxygen is the third most abundant chemical element in the universe, after hydrogen and helium. [68] About 0.9% of the Sun's mass is oxygen. [19] Oxygen constitutes 49.2% of the Earth's crust by mass [69] as part of oxide compounds such as silicon dioxide and is the most abundant element by mass in the Earth's crust.
A large fraction of the chemical elements that occur naturally on the Earth's surface are essential to the structure and metabolism of living things. Four of these elements (hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen) are essential to every living thing and collectively make up 99% of the mass of protoplasm. [1]
Aerobic respiration requires oxygen (O 2) in order to create ATP.Although carbohydrates, fats and proteins are consumed as reactants, aerobic respiration is the preferred method of pyruvate production in glycolysis, and requires pyruvate be transported the mitochondria in order to be oxidized by the citric acid cycle.
Photosynthetic prokaryotic organisms that produced O 2 as a byproduct lived long before the first build-up of free oxygen in the atmosphere, [5] perhaps as early as 3.5 billion years ago. The oxygen cyanobacteria produced would have been rapidly removed from the oceans by weathering of reducing minerals, [citation needed] most notably ferrous ...
The oxygen cycle demonstrates how free oxygen is made available in each of these regions, as well as how it is used. The oxygen cycle is the biogeochemical cycle of oxygen atoms between different oxidation states in ions, oxides, and molecules through redox reactions within and between the spheres/reservoirs of the planet Earth. [1]
Cellular respiration happens when a cell takes glucose and oxygen and uses it to produce carbon dioxide, energy, and water. This transaction is important not only for the benefit of the cells, but for the carbon dioxide output provided, which is key in the process of photosynthesis. Without respiration, actions necessary to life, such as ...
This excess carbon dioxide is created by the decomposition of organic material by microbial organisms, in the presence of oxygen. [7] Given the importance of both soil gases to soil life, significant fluctuation of carbon dioxide and oxygen can result in changes in rate of decay, [7] while changes in microbial abundance can inversely influence ...
An example of the ecological importance of anaerobic respiration is the use of nitrate as a terminal electron acceptor, or dissimilatory denitrification, which is the main route by which fixed nitrogen is returned to the atmosphere as molecular nitrogen gas. [3] The denitrification process is also very important in host-microbe interactions.