@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)
@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...