<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs attention from an expert in Biology or Molecular and Cell Biology . The specific problem is: The title and scope of this article have issues . See the talk page for details . WikiProject Biology or WikiProject Molecular and Cell Biology may be able to help recruit an expert . (April 2017) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs attention from an expert in Biology or Molecular and Cell Biology . The specific problem is: The title and scope of this article have issues . See the talk page for details . WikiProject Biology or WikiProject Molecular and Cell Biology may be able to help recruit an expert . (April 2017) </Td> </Tr> <P> The light - independent reactions, or dark reactions, of photosynthesis are chemical reactions that convert carbon dioxide and other compounds into glucose . These reactions occur in the stroma, the fluid - filled area of a chloroplast outside of the thylakoid membranes . These reactions take the products (ATP and NADPH) of light - dependent reactions and perform further chemical processes on them . There are three phases to the light - independent reactions, collectively called the Calvin cycle: carbon fixation, reduction reactions, and ribulose 1, 5 - bisphosphate (RuBP) regeneration . </P> <P> This process occurs only when light is available . Plants do not carry out the Calvin cycle during nighttime . They instead release sucrose into the phloem from their starch reserves . This process happens when light is available independent of the kind of photosynthesis (C3 carbon fixation, C4 carbon fixation, and Crassulacean acid metabolism); CAM plants store malic acid in their vacuoles every night and release it by day to make this process work . They are also known as dark reactions . </P>

Why are the reactions of the calvin cycle called light-independent reactions