Living Environment Regents 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

Photosynthesis is the method of energy transfer in ecosystems because it is the process by which autotrophs, like plants, convert light energy from the sun into chemical energy in the form of glucose. This process is fundamental to ecosystems, as it forms the base of the food chain. Plants take in carbon dioxide and water and, using sunlight, produce glucose and oxygen. The glucose serves as an energy source for the plants themselves and for the herbivores that consume them, who then pass the energy along to predators in the ecosystem.

While fermentation, cellular respiration, and transcription are important biological processes, they do not directly represent the transfer of energy within ecosystems in the same way that photosynthesis does. Fermentation and cellular respiration are processes that involve the breakdown of organic molecules to release energy, mainly occurring in organisms that consume organic matter. Transcription, on the other hand, is a molecular process that synthesizes RNA from a DNA template, playing a critical role in gene expression rather than in energy transfer. Thus, photosynthesis is the process that initiates energy flow within ecosystems.