∞ generated and posted on 2015.12.28 ∞
| Carbon Fixation is the defining feature of autotrophic organisms, the conversion by organisms such as plants of carbon dioxide into organic, bioavailable forms of carbon. |
Carbon Fixation, a.k.a., carbon assimilation, is the biological process of converting carbon dioxide and water into organic compounds, particularly carbohydrate. This is the defining process of autotrophic nutrient acquisition strategies and involves the process known as the Calvin cycle.
Note the equivalence of this process to the overall reaction of photosynthesis. That is, photosynthesis is a process of carbon fixation, one that is powered by sunlight, thus making organisms such as plants photoautotrophs. See by contrast chemoautotrophs for which energy, as indicated above, is chemical energy rather than the energy of light
The Calvin cycle, the metabolic cycle within which carbon fixation takes place, is also described, for photoautotrophs, as the dark reaction of photosynthesis.
See also the carbon cycle, which is a biogeochemical cycle rather than metabolic cycle, but within which carbon fixation plays a prominent role.