A single large tree consumes around 0.45 metric tons of water per day, and provides enough oxygen to sustain about 4 people. 🌳
@InvaderXan 'consumes' can be a bit misleading, since it's actively just recycling water, oftentimes playing an important role in the water cycle (like cloud seeding, or keeping the microclimate the way it is, and so on)
@js290
I'm sure writing this left you with a feeling of superiority. Well done. However, I never used the word "only," and ecological context was not relevant.
A tree is a biological organism and, like any other, it takes in resources and expels byproducts to function. On average, a large tree has a daily biological requirement of 450kg of water. Photosynthesis converts this into approximately 390kg of O₂. That's not reductionism, it's biochemistry.
@arteteco Well I mean, that water is kinda where the oxygen comes from...
@InvaderXan
What do you mean?
@arteteco Well, the light reactions in photosynthesis convert water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is used to reduce carbon dioxide into carbohydrate and the oxygen is expelled, so I mean that the water which plants take in is literally where the atoms come from to make the molecular oxygen which we breathe.
Of course, plants also use the same kind of respiration that animals do, which expels water (and CO2) back into the atmosphere...
