Chemosynthesis

A process that is evolutionarily much older than photosynthesis and but is a less complicated process belonging to the genus autotrophism. It is carried out by bacteria called chemoautotrophs, and is the source of energy for the assimilation of carbon dioxide (CO2) are oxidation processes of simpler inorganic compounds or methane. Organisms capable of performing chemosynthetic reactions are chemoautotrophs. The phenomenon of chemosynthesis was first discovered in Paris in 1887, by Sergei Vinodradsky, who observed Beggiatoa bacteria growing in the absence of organic matter, i.e. in an environment rich in H2S (hydrogen sulfide). We can divide the process of chemosynthesis into two stages. The first stage is the oxidation of a chemical compound (equivalent to photosynthesis-light phase), in which the organism produces so-called biologically useful energy, while the second stage is the binding of carbon dioxide and the production of glucose (on the same principle as the dark phase of photosynthesis). The efficiency of chemosynthetic processes ranges from 3 to 30%. Efficiency is calculated as the ratio between the energy stored in carbon compounds and the energy produced by the oxidation of reductants. Organisms capable of chemosynthesis are a small number of bacterial species, popularly known as chemoautotrophs, of which the most important are: 1) hydrogen bacteria, which oxidize molecular hydrogen to water 2) colorless sulfur bacteria, which oxidize reduced sulfur compounds (sulfides, thiosulfates) and elemental sulfur to sulfates 3) nitrifying bacteria, which oxidize ammonium ions NH4+ to nitrate(III) and nitrate(III) to nitrate(V), this process is called nitrification, 4) ferric bacteria, which oxidize iron ions (II) Fe2+ to ions(III) Fe3+. The processes of chemosynthesis play a huge role in the circulation of elements in nature, as well as in the formation of deposits and deposits, such as nitrates (saltpeter), iron ores, manganese.