Question

How chemosynthetic autotrophic bacteria recycle nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur?

Answer 1

Autotrophic bacteria are those which can synthesize their own food. They derive energy from light or from chemical reactions. They use inorganic compounds like carbon dioxide, water, hydrogen sulfide and convert them into organic compounds like carbohydrates, proteins, etc. to meet their energy requirements.

Complete answer:
Depending on the types of sources, autotrophic bacteria can be categorized into two types.
- Photoautotrophs or photosynthetic - They derive energy from sunlight.
- Chemoautotrophs or chemosynthetic - They use chemical energy to prepare their food.

Chemosynthetic autotrophic bacteria play a great role in recycling nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorous, iron and sulphur. Chemosynthetic autotrophic bacteria can oxidise various inorganic substances in order to obtain energy. Chemosynthetic bacteria can be a group of autotrophic or photosynthetic bacteria capable of oxidizing various inorganic substances to produce their food.

These bacteria oxidise, hydrogen sulphide or thiosulphates to molecular sulphur or sulphates.
They also convert ammonia to nitrite and then to nitrate. In this process, energy is released. Nitrate is utilized by plants. They oxidise ferrous ions to ferric ions that are present in iron-rich environments like
hot lava bed, hydrothermal vents.

Therefore, chemosynthetic bacteria helps the ecosystem as they play a significant role in recycling nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, and sulphur.

Note: Chemoautotrophic bacteria can perform chemosynthesis that utilizes chemical energy since they lack photosynthetic pigments. They can be aerobic or anaerobic. Depending on the sources they derive energy from, they are categorised into various types such as sulphur bacteria, hydrogen bacteria, iron bacteria, nitrogen bacteria, methanotrophs.