Photosynthesis and respiration as complementary processes in the living world.
Photosynthesis uses the energy of sunlight to produce sugars and other organic molecules.
These molecules in turn serve as food for other organisms. Many of these organisms carry out respiration, a process that uses O2 to form CO2 from the same carbon atoms that had been taken up as CO2 and converted into sugars by photosynthesis. In the process, the organisms that respire obtain the chemical bond energy that they need to survive. However, photosynthesis must have preceded respiration on the earth, since there is strong evidence that billions of years of photosynthesis were required before O2 had been released in sufficient quantity to create an atmosphere rich in this gas.