25 Photoautotrophs Examples: Detailed Explanations And Images

In this article, we will study about 25 photoautotrophs examples in a detailed manner including the respective images.

To learn more about photoautotrophs, consider the following photoautotrophs examples: land or terrestrial plants, photosynthetic algae, lichens, photosynthetic bacteria, and other marine plant-like phytoplankton species.

Photosynthesis is the process that processes sunlight energy into a nutrient, i.e. glucose; that’s how most autotrophs (all green-leaved plants) get their nutrition. The water from the soil and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is then converted to prepare food for the plants. Photoautotrophs are another term for them.

Photoautotrophs are organisms that use photon (light) absorption to synthesize organic substances such as carbohydrates to get the energy to perform other biological processes. In simple words, Photoautotrophs use sunlight as a source of energy to synthesize their own food from inorganic compounds. They execute so many cellular metabolic activities using light energy. 

Photoautotrophs are often misunderstood as being required to be photosynthetic. But, some certain phototrophs (though not all) photosynthesize: they, through the anabolism process, transform carbon dioxide into organic material for functional, structural, or catabolic purposes. 

Depending on the energy source from other inorganic compounds, the photoautotrophic organisms are therefore considered holophytic or photolithoautotrophic organisms.

To learn more about photoautotrophs, consider the following photoautotrophs examples: land or terrestrial plants, photosynthetic algae, lichens, photosynthetic bacteria, and other marine plant-like phytoplankton species.

Land or Terrestrial Plants: Photoautotrophs Examples

1) Sycamore–

It is a terrestrial deciduous tree that grows 75 to 100 feet tall and has dense branches with leaves, allowing it to receive more solar energy. The chlorophyll pigments in the leaves soak up sunlight and use it in the photosynthesis process more efficiently.

2) Oaks

The oak is a shrub or tree that helps ecosystems maintain a healthy oxygen level in the atmosphere. It is a photoautotrophic living lifeform because it has well-branched leaves that feed itself through photosynthesis.

3) Maples

Like all other plants, maple trees are photoautotrophic because they can manufacture their food through the photosynthesis process for their nourishment.

4) Roses

Flowering plants, such as the rose plant, support the efficacy of chloroplast lipids and vesicles transportation in photoautotrophic development.

5) Carrots

Solar radiation has been favourable to carrots’ growth during growth, propagation, and developmental stages. It is a photoautotrophic plant that synthesizes its food using light energy as a source.

6) Mosses

Mosses are green leaf bryophytes that can be found almost anywhere there should be enough light to manufacture their food and are adapted to the local environment.

7) Hornworts

Most hornwort sporophytes are also photosynthetic, but liverwort sporophytes aren’t. As a result, it is a photoautotrophic plant frequently sown on land.

8) Lemongrass

Lemongrass is a prominent plant of the grass family that is extensively used as a flavouring in various recipes. Lemongrass cultivated under an eight-hour photoperiod demonstrated better rates of photosynthesis than lemongrass grown under a 14-hour photoperiod.

Photosynthetic Algae: Photoautotrophs Examples

9) Chlamydomonas

Chlamydomonas, single-celled green algae, is a photoautotroph, meaning it feeds on solar energy and some inorganic matter from the environment. Chlamydomonas cells have a single big chloroplast with pigments that help them absorb sunlight more.

 10) Spirogyra

Spirogyra is a photoautotroph, which means that it absorbs light energy to make nutrients for its growth and development. On the other hand, other algae are heterotrophs, meaning they acquire their nutrients from the environment or other external entities.

11) Ulva

Ulva, popularly known as Sea Lettuce, is a genus of chlorophytes belonging to the Ulvaceae family. It has a wide range of tolerance for critical habitat variables like light intensity, oxygen levels, temperature, salinity, and nutrients. As a result, it lives in a photoautotrophic environment.

 12) Green Seaweeds

Algae that live in water in their larger quantities are known as seaweed. On the other hand, Green Seaweeds have a lot of chlorophyll, which is why they are photoautotrophic multicellular macroalgae. 

 13) Gonyaulax catenella

Fresh, marine and brackish water are all home to Gonyaulax catenella. It’s photoautotrophic, turning light energy into plant food energy through photosynthesis.

14) Noctiluca Scintillans

Sea sparkle is a form of microalgae plankton called Noctiluca Scintillans. This free-floating algal bloom’s lifeform can photosynthesize as a photoautotroph and consume food particles like an animal like a heterotroph. They give out a blue light glow when they are disturbed by other external factors.

Lichens: Photoautotrophs Examples

15) Parmelia

The reduction of light absorption during evaporation and chlorophyll content as indications of photoprotection has been studied in resistant lichens like Parmelia. Its reflection mode showed that hydrated organisms absorb more photosynthetic pigments than dried species and that chlorolichens absorb less.

16) Usnea

Usnea is a form of lichen that is free-living in nature and depends on photoautotrophic nutrients. They are a mixture of algae and fungus which coexist for mutual benefit. Although it is a pale greyish green coloured lichen, it can produce its own food by photosynthesis.

17) Rocella

Rocella is a species of lichen, a fungus that lives in aerotolerant space. It does obligatory symbioses with one or more photosynthesizing companions and is involved in various biogeochemical activities.

Photosynthetic Bacteria: Photoautotrophs Examples

 18) Cyanobacteria

Cyanobacteria are prokaryotic microorganisms that perform oxygenic photosynthesis, and they can be found in a variety of environments, including freshwater, seawater, lichens and land. 

Since the organelle present in plants performs, photosynthesis is inherited from an endosymbiotic cyanobacterium. Cyanobacteria do plant-like photosynthesis for their mode of nutrition.

19) Chloroflexi

Chloroflexi is a non-sulfur greenish filamentous bacteria. The family Chloroflexales contains the majority of chlorophototrophs, which are phototrophic bacteria capable of chlorophyll-based phototrophy for photosynthesis.

 20) Heliobacteria

Heliobacteria are completely anaerobic, phototrophic bacteria that use diffusion from the surrounding air. They differ from some of the other anaerobic oxygen-requiring phototrophs, such as they create unique photosynthetic pigments. 

They have no potential for autotrophic proliferation and make special photosynthetic pigments.

21) Chlorobi

Chlorobi is photoautotrophs that live in anaerobic conditions. These bacteria thrive in sulfur-rich environments with low light intensities, but they can nevertheless produce their food using the photosynthesis mechanism.

Phytoplanktons: Photoautotrophs Examples

22) Coccolithophorids

Coccolithophores are unicellular phytoplankton that is considered autotrophs in nature. They use photosynthesis to fix carbon within both delicate plant tissue and rigid minerogenic calcite. 

But they use sunlight as an energy source for food processing long after being submerged.

23) Diatoms

Diatoms are autotrophic unicellular, filamentous or colonial creatures in freshwater and marine environments. It is a photosynthetic organism capable of converting solar energy into chemical energy in the form of ATP, i.e. adenosine triphosphate.

 24) Cryptomonads

Cryptomonads are microscopic biflagellate phytoplankton that can be seen under various conditions. Eukaryotic and prokaryotic phototrophs contain their dissolved substances. The pigment chlorophyll helps absorb light for the photosynthesis process, making it a photoautotroph.

25) Euglenoids

Euglenoid is a photoautotrophic plant that may grow in a variety of environments as it can take carbon dioxide as a carbon source plus ammonium and nitrate as nitrogen sources in the presence of light. 

It may also consume dissolved organic substances as a source of carbon, making it a heterotrophic organism as well. Phytoplankton forms the foundation of many aquatic food chains.

Also Read:

• Function of flagella in bacteria
• Function monomer examples
• Simple fruit example
• Is enzyme a catalyst
• Contractile vacuole in paramecium
• Is enzyme a protein
• Chest anatomy
• Enzymes and respiratory
• Myriapods characteristics
• Spoilage bacteria examples