Question

What do you think would happen to the food chain and life in general if photosynthesis shut down for some reason? Would life continue as normal? Could humans continue as normal? Would our technology be able to save us?

Answer 1

Hi Answer:

Q. What do you think would happen to the food chain and life in general if photosynthesis shut down for some reason? Would life continue as normal? Could humans continue as normal? Would our technology be able to save us?

Answer: Photosynthesis is one of the vital processes which supports life on this planet. The effects of photosynthesis shutdown will destroy the whole world. This process not only provides nutrition or energy to plant but it’s equally important for other creatures of the earth because intake of photosynthesis is carbon dioxide and output is oxygen. One side this process reduces CO₂ from the atmosphere which helps to keep the earth temperature low and another side it produces oxygen without which any living thing can’t survive.

Effect on food chain if photosynthesis shut down for some reason?

As we know that the food chain is a series in which one trophic level consume others. In food chain the autotrophs mean plants act as primary producers and major trophic level. If the process of photosynthesis will stop then these plants will not produce their food and biomass due to which the herbivores will not get their food and so on carnivores will also not get food. In this way, whole food chain will be destroyed and the whole ecosystem will be collapsed.

Would life continue as normal? Could humans continue as normal?

The answer is No, not at all because along with the primary producer plants also produce oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis. If there will be no photosynthesis then no oxygen will be evolved and without oxygen life on earth is not possible. Second, the absence of photosynthesis the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere will increases very high because photosynthesis is one of the major sink of CO₂ in the atmosphere. In nutshell we can say life without photosynthesis is not possible. Without oxygen human as well as any creature will not remain alive on this planet.

Would our technology be able to save us?

No, it is not possible to generate the oxygen in such a large scale to save the human and population by artificial technology and photosynthesis also produce biomass which is the food of herbivores so without photosynthesis ecosystem will not work. In addition to this our technology is not sufficient or capable to deal with such high concentration of CO₂ which is evolved due to the respiration of all organisms. So it is sure that without photosynthesis life will not possible on earth and even our advanced technology is not able to save the planet.