Almost all the living world depends on plants for food material. How do you appreciate the process of making food by the green plants? (AS6)

All living organisms depend directly or indirectly on the plants for their food. The plants make their food (sugars) by the process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is a two-step process viz. light dependent and light independent reaction. The light dependent reaction involves harnessing sunlight and producing ATP and NADPH which is utilized in light independent reaction to synthesize sugars. Consider, the food web in Fig.10, caterpillar, rabbit and grasshopper (primary consumers) are dependent on green plants for their food. While higher animals viz. snake, hawk and blue jay (secondary consumers) are dependent on primary consumers. Therefore, if green plants are eliminated from the ecosystem, primary and secondary consumers will starve and die viz. complete food web will collapse if the plants are eliminated. Therefore, plants are indispensable for the existence of every/ almost every living organism on earth.

Fig 10 shows different components of food web