The process by which light energy is harnessed to assemble organic compounds (esp. glucose) from inorganic carbon dioxide.
Should be paired with botany or bacteriology as appropriate.
Questions tagged [photosynthesis]
321 questions
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Why "Having chlorophyll without photosynthesis is actually very dangerous" and "like living with a bomb"?
The Phys.org article Scientists discover first organism with chlorophyll genes that doesn't photosynthesize says
"For the first time scientists have found an organism that can produce chlorophyll but does not engage in photosynthesis.
It is…
uhoh
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What vegetation would thrive in the Martian atmosphere?
Most plants require carbon dioxide for their photosynthesis, which Mars has in overabundance.
Would atmosphere composition (let's ignore temperatures for the purpose of this question) of Mars allow vegetation to grow?
lurscher
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Are plants really oxygen neutral?
This accepted and most upvoted answer to the question Does grass alone produce enough oxygen for life? claims that plants are oxygen neutral:
Plants are oxygen neutral The question wording is a bit misleading, as
– surprise – plants do not…
404success
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Does the light color spectrum and frequency matter for photosynthesis?
Do plants grow differently when given sun light, wolfram lamp, fluorescent light, LED light, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, unfocused laser and stroboscope?
user1306322
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What is the lowest intensity threshold of light for photosynthesis in any species?
Recently, I was reading the question "Photosynthesis - light intensity, particularly the answer, that states that different species require different intensity of light. My question is what is the lowest threshold of light intensity for…
user3795
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Is coral photosynthesis dependant on the wavelength or frequency of light?
When buying a light fixture for a marine fish tank, it is often sold with some technical data reguarding the spectral output of the light, with a peak in the blue region of visible light, somewhere around 430 to 460nm in air.
As light enters the…
Justanengineer
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How high is the energy yield of photovoltaics compared to photosynthesis?
I'm not an expert in plant physiology. I was wondering if, per square centimeter, leaves are converting more or less energy than photovoltaic systems. Can this be estimated? How?
Gianpaolo R
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How long could Earth's oxygen supply last if no new oxygen were produced?
I read in an article or heard in some documentary that there's so much oxygen in the atmosphere that even if all photosynthesis stopped, there's already enough to last us a long time.
Is this correct? Why or why not? If so, how long is this 'long…
404success
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How much energy takes C4 photosyntesis to make glucose?
Wikipedia has a kind of contradiction that I would like to understand:
According to this link
The C3 pathway requires 18 ATP for the synthesis of one molecule of glucose while the C4 pathway requires 20 ATP. [...]
According to this other…
Ender Look
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Is there a limit to acceptable brightness for plants?
Can overly bright artificial light harm plants? Is it possible to achieve a level of brightness so high that it does more harm than good to plants?
If sunlight can be filtered of infrared light spectrum, so the plants don't burn from high…
user1306322
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Where does all the carbon go?
I found it hard to get numbers on global primary production, but apparently it's somewhere around 50-60 $Gt / year$ for carbon content in the terrestrial production, and a similar figure for the oceans. Global oil and coal extraction together are…
Hanno Fietz
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Can plants survive indefinitely without external supply of gases at compensation point?
During photosynthesis, there is a point at which the light intensity is such that the rate of photosynthesis exactly matches the rate of respiration called the compensation point. What this means is that the plant can essentially utilize the…
Gerard
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Photosynthesis: Can light directly excite the reaction center instead of going through the antenna complex?
The reaction centers that I am interested in are P680(photosystem II) and P700 (photosystem I)
Here is what I think:
If pigments such as chlorophyll a and b capture light in the antenna complex, and
if the reaction center contains chlorophyll a,…
Angery Doge
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How to add oxygen to indoor air without opening windows?
I'm not a biologist. I have read that low oxygen levels in the home can have a negative effect on health. I am interested in increasing the amount of oxygen in the air in my home.
To open the windows would be the most effective way but the air…
cja
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Influence of carbon dioxide concentration on the rate of photosynthesis
The experiment to prove that carbon dioxide concentration influences the rate of photosynthesis:
Click here to see the image
The experiment is repeated after adding some sodium hydrogencarbonate (which dissolves in water to produce carbon dioxide)…
Ramana
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