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Reference Terms
from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Plant

A plant is a living organism that belongs to the kingdom Plantae and is characterized by its ability to produce its own food through photosynthesis. Most plants are rooted in soil, have stems and leaves, and contain the green pigment chlorophyll, which captures sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen. This process not only sustains the plant itself but also supports life on Earth by generating oxygen and serving as the foundation of most food chains.

Plants come in a wide variety of forms, from tiny mosses and grasses to towering trees and flowering shrubs. They play critical roles in ecosystems by stabilizing soil, regulating water cycles, providing habitats, and storing carbon. Many plants also have reproductive structures such as flowers or cones and produce seeds that enable them to reproduce and spread.

In addition to their ecological importance, plants are essential to human life. They provide food, medicine, fiber, fuel, and raw materials for countless industries. Their beauty and diversity also contribute to cultural and aesthetic value around the world. Understanding and protecting plant life is key to preserving biodiversity and sustaining the health of the planet.

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Earth & Climate News

April 14, 2026

For years, water managers have been puzzled as the Colorado River kept delivering less water than expected—even when snowpack levels looked promising. New research reveals the missing piece: spring rain, or rather, the lack of it. Warmer, drier ...
Africa’s forests have undergone a shocking reversal, switching from carbon absorbers to carbon emitters after 2010. Researchers found that heavy deforestation in tropical regions has led to massive biomass losses, far outweighing any gains from ...
Gray whales are beginning to break their long-established migration patterns, venturing into risky new territory like San Francisco Bay as climate change disrupts their Arctic food supply. But this unexpected detour is proving deadly: nearly one in ...
Scientists searching for air pollution clues stumbled onto something unexpected: toxic MCCPs drifting through the air for the first time in the Western Hemisphere. The likely source—fertilizer made from sewage sludge—points to a hidden route for ...
Oyster reefs aren’t random piles—they’re carefully shaped survival systems. Researchers discovered that certain geometric patterns, not just bigger or more complex structures, give young oysters the best chance to thrive. By mimicking these ...
A sweeping new study reveals that as Arctic permafrost thaws, it is dramatically reshaping rivers and releasing vast amounts of ancient carbon that had been locked away for thousands of years. By analyzing decades of high-resolution data across ...
Warming across the U.S. is far more uneven than it looks at first glance. While only about half of states show rising average temperatures, most are heating up in specific ways—like hotter highs or warmer lows. These hidden shifts vary by region, ...
Old canned salmon turned out to be a time capsule of ocean health. Researchers found that rising levels of tiny parasitic worms in some salmon species suggest stronger, more complete marine food ...
Scientists may have been unknowingly inflating microplastics pollution estimates, and the surprising source could be their own lab gloves. A University of Michigan study found that common nitrile and latex gloves release tiny particles called ...
Scientists have discovered that the ocean’s “missing” plastic hasn’t vanished—it has broken down into trillions of invisible nanoplastics now spread through water, air, and living ...
Scientists have created a new kind of carbon material that could make carbon capture much cheaper and more efficient. By carefully controlling how nitrogen atoms are arranged, they found certain structures capture CO2 better and release it using far ...
A massive 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar in March 2025, but what makes this event extraordinary is what happened next. For the first time, a nearby CCTV camera captured the fault rupture in ...

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