Chemosynthesis, Thermosynthesis, and good ol' fashioned Autotroph fun.

Okay, Chemosynthesis is similar to Photosynthesis, except instead of using the sun's energy to make sugars, bacteria use chemicals (and sometimes large heat sources) to create their own fuel. This exists on earth, in deep sea trenches and the like, in bacteria. It might also be feasible for multi-cellulars, leading to a different classification of "plant," which would not look anything like our usual trees, grass, etc, as it would be designed to capture chemicals, not light.
Thermosynthesis is theoretical, but involves the production of sugars, proteins etc. using the energy from heat. However, it throws in jargon such as "reverse entropy," and basically involves the creation of order out of disorder. I need to look up more about it, and not just on wikipedia.
But the question is - Okay, the question is open here. If we put this in the game, what do we do with the suckers? It's beyond what most people know about evolution. However, it would be hideous fun.
So, anyone with ideas (or links) on a new type of autotroph to supplement our plants and algae can post here.

Well, there are only so many kinds of energy. So far this covers Electro-Magnetic, Chemical, and Thermal. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but those are the only forms of passive energy out there. I have trouble imagining an organism that lives off of say, kinetic energy.

@Rex-
Kinetic energy is just energy inmotion. If it's not stored energy, it's kinetic.

Basically, we need to think of organs forr all types of energy gathering we may include.

~sciocont wrote:

@Rex-
Kinetic energy is just energy inmotion. If it's not stored energy, it's kinetic.

Basically, we need to think of organs forr all types of energy gathering we may include.

1. I was thinking macro-kinetic

2. We have to think of all the different types of energy gathering we will include at all first.

Well, I think chemosynthesis is inherently plausible, and given that it actually occurs on earth, we know it's evolved at least once. And it really is very similar to photosynthesis, but with a different set of conditions providing the energy.
Wouldn't be too hard to have a look at deep-sea organisms that use chemosynthesis and set up the option similar to photosynthesis.

Tenebrarum wrote:

~sciocont wrote:

@Rex-
Kinetic energy is just energy inmotion. If it's not stored energy, it's kinetic.

Basically, we need to think of organs forr all types of energy gathering we may include.

1. I was thinking macro-kinetic

2. We have to think of all the different types of energy gathering we will include at all first.

I suppose creatuires could use a piezioelectric effect to harvest energy from blows and shockwaves, sound waves as well.

That's actually not a bda idea- think of a tree on a planet that is almost always in dark- it could harvest sound energy, shockwaves from earthquakes, etc.

Piezioelectric sounds good, but would the organism running off of it be using the electric charge directly or would it be using it to convert chemicals into forms that it can use (analogous to sugar production?)
I wouldn't imagine that the electric charge would be large (or constant) enough for the second option, and the only part of an organism that can really be run without "sugars" is the CNS.

Still, I've read of stranger things in science fiction... if we can think out a logical way that this could work I say go for it. Variety is awesome.

Mysterious_Calligrapher wrote:

Piezioelectric sounds good, but would the organism running off of it be using the electric charge directly or would it be using it to convert chemicals into forms that it can use (analogous to sugar production?)
I wouldn't imagine that the electric charge would be large (or constant) enough for the second option, and the only part of an organism that can really be run without "sugars" is the CNS.

Still, I've read of stranger things in science fiction... if we can think out a logical way that this could work I say go for it. Variety is awesome.

Such a charge could be both large and constant on an alien world.

I've been doing some reading on alternate energy systems, and I have some numbers concerning chemosynthesis.

-Aerobic respiration² yields about -2880 kJ/mol glucose (which would be around -2830 wihtout glycolysis)
-Glycolysis³ yields about -53.4 kJ/mol glucose
-Iron Oxidation respiration¹ could yield -167 kJ/mol Fe
-Sulfate Reduction⁴ yields about -20 kJ/mol Sulfur
-Denitrification⁵ yields about -561 kJ/mol NO₃^- or -455 kJ/mol when using sulfur oxidation

This means aerobic respiration is far more efficient than any other type of respiration, but in the absence of oxygen, denitrification is an excellent respiratory strategy.

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