The Different Ways in Which Organisms Use Inorganic Ions

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Inorganic ions are charged particles that do not contain carbon atoms bonded together. While organisms are mainly built from carbon-containing molecules, their functions rely on inorganic ions such as nitrate, hydrogen and calcium. This essay will detail some of the roles of specific ions and describe how animals, plants and bacteria use them. Productivity in an ecosystem in the soil is limited in part by the availability of fixed nitrogen in the soil. Nitrogen fixing bacteria in the roots of leguminous plants reduce atmospheric nitrogen to ammonium using ATP and reduced NAD. The ammonium ions released into the soil are oxidised by nitrifying bacteria firstly to nitrite, and then to nitrate. This oxidation increases the nitrogen content in the soil which plants can use to produces many useful molecules including amino acids, proteins, DNA and ATP. The formation of these ions forms part of the ecological nitrogen cycle which plays a key role in sustaining life on this planet. Plants are the producers for an ecosystem. They photosynthesise carbon dioxide and water and produce energy in the form of carbohydrates and other molecules. Photosynthesis requires water, and plants gain water from the soil using mineral ions such as nitrate produced by the nitrifying bacteria. Hydrolysis of ATP releases energy for processes such as active transport of the nitrate ions (and others such as potassium etc) from the soil into root hair cells, a process that lowers water potential and is used to draw water into the plant from the soil. In leaves, photosynthesis involves the photolysis of water, a process that involves the attachment of two electrons to a magnesium ion in chlorophyll and the production of hydrogen ions from the breakdown of water. Together with the electrons, the hydrogen ions are used to reduce NADP in the light-dependent reaction in the thylakoid. The hydrogen

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