What is autotrophic nutrition? Follow

Plants are the most important source of life. The whole ecosystem depends on the condition of plants on the earth. Well, it is very natural that the human body gets the proper source of nutrition from the foods they take. But have you ever realized from where the plants get nutrition? Plants have their means to prepare food from where they get nutrition and energy.

Light is the primary source of energy for plants. And when we speak about light, it is nothing but the Sunlight. The central place to make food are the leaves which contain a green colored pigment called chlorophyll. The whole process is called photosynthesis. Autotrophic nutrition is the process when plants try to utilize these complex photosynthetic food into smaller and simpler molecules to get proper nutrition out of it.

Main elements for autotrophic nutrition:

Plants need autotrophic nutrition to grow and gain energy. The main elements of proper autotrophic nutrition are carbon dioxide, water, and minerals. But these are non-living elements. Besides, there is the impact of many living factors like bacteria, algae, fungus, etc. in autotrophic nutrition. As the complex substances are broken to smaller molecules, they produce glucose which is the primary source of energy for plants. This energy when finally gets absorbed by the plants converts the water into hydrogen and oxygen. Thus, plants are the only source to produce natural oxygen in the environment.  Blue-green algae and cyanobacteria are perfect examples of autotrophic nutrition.

Let’s have a look at which parts of a plant mainly have a significant role in autotrophic nutrition:

There are three main parts of a plant which actively helps in autotrophic nutrition.

1.    Leaves- Leaves contain chlorophyll which helps in photosynthesis and prepares glucose out of water, sunlight and carbon dioxide. Without the production of food, autotrophic nutrition cannot take place.

2.    Stomata- As it is already said that the leaves help in preparing food; it is the stomata of the lower epidermis of a sheet which absorbs carbon dioxide.

3.    Roots- Roots are the central part of the plant which is responsible for absorbing water and minerals from beneath the soil and makes it get to the various parts of the plants through the stem and the leaves.

The word autotropic is formed of 2 words Auto and Trophic. Here Auto means self, and Trophic means nutrition. The actual meaning of autotrophic is self-nutrition. Autotrophic nutrition can be defined as a process used by an organism for preparing their food using simple yet inorganic materials such as water, carbon dioxide, and mineral salts in the absolute presence of the sunlight. All plants with green color make use of autotrophic nutrition mode. Minerals, carbon dioxide, and water create a direct impact on autotrophic nutrition. Because of this type of nutrition, plants can make the production of their food. They are using autotrophic nutrition for self-feeding and growth.

Autotrophic category organisms have a colored pigment of green shade known as chlorophyll, which supports it in the trapping of energy directly from the sun. They make the preparation of the self food by application of a process named photosynthesis. This process helps in the formation of glucose. There are some specific parts of the plants which are involved in the process of autotrophic nutrition.

•  Roots: At the time of photosynthesis, the roots act towards absorbing water and mineral directly from the soil and then making a distribution of a plant's resting parts.
•  Stomata: It exists in the lower epidermis of leaves. Here the stomata play an important role in absorbing carbon dioxide directly from air at the time of photosynthesis.
•  Leaves: In the case of vascular plants, its leaves contain chloroplasts which help in synthesizing glucose via carbon dioxide and water
 Autotropic-nutrition is basically of two types. The first one is Photo-autotrophic nutrition, and the second one is Chemo-autotrophic nutrition. For the first category, sunlight is the source of energy, and for the latter one, chemicals are the source of energy.