Significance of Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis is described as one of the most significant processes on Earth precisely because it is an anabolic (building-up) process that converts simple inorganic substances into food, supporting all life directly or indirectly, and because it converts solar energy into a stored chemical form usable by living systems. Its released oxygen byproduct is not only essential for aerobic respiration in living organisms but has also, over geological time, gone into building up the protective ozone layer around the Earth. On an even longer timescale, photosynthesis is also the ultimate process be …