r/confidentlyincorrect 2d ago

Understanding photosynthesis, trees, and conservation of mass.

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u/cheeseybees 2d ago

I thought (maybe i'm wrong?) that they still respire... so taking in Oxygen, and breathe out CO2... and that photosynthesis is a different mechanism that extracts CO2 from the air and produces O2

Pretty sure I read somewhere that some trees can take around a decade to grow to the point where they become net extractors of CO2?

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u/LoneSnark 2d ago

When they're super young, they have no leaves for photosynthesis, so they rely upon the energy stored in the seed/nut that spawned them, turning that into CO2 and energy.
But their seed/nut was created from CO2 by their parent. It isn't like they are created from oil/coal.