In the previous deck, we looked at aerobic respiration, which uses oxygen to release energy from glucose. Now, we'll explore what happens when there isn't enough oxygen available. This process is called anaerobic respiration.

Anaerobic respiration is much less efficient than aerobic respiration. For every one molecule of glucose, it releases a much smaller amount of energy.

Let's first look at anaerobic respiration in a microorganism called yeast. When yeast respires without oxygen, it breaks down glucose into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The word equation is: glucose goes to alcohol plus carbon dioxide.