r/confidentlyincorrect • u/Maleficent-AE21 • 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/Sealedwolf 2d ago

They do. Usually that's not a problem, but with algea in an eutrophic lake they can consume so much oxygen overnight that animals might asphyxiate.