Did The Color Of Light Affect Carbon Dioxide Consumption In Spinach Leaves

Did the Different Color of Lights Affect the Carbon Dioxide Consumption in Spinach Leaves?

Background

Photosynthesis is the process where plants use sunlight energy, water, and carbon dioxide to produce food for themselves to help them grow. Organisms that go through photosynthesis is autotrophs, an organism that can produce its own food using materials from inorganic substances. The equation for photosynthesis is carbon dioxide + water + sunlight energy = glucose + oxygen. Photosynthesis is important because without this process no autotrophs would be able to survive. So, there would be no plant life whatsoever.

Photosynthesis can take place at many different rates, many factors can affect this rate. One factor that can affect the rate

There are three main parts in the chloroplast. The stroma, which is fluid in the chloroplast. The thylakoid, which is groups of pigments that absorb sunlight energy. Lastly the grana, which is a stack of thylakoids. Light dependent photosynthesis happens in the thylakoids. Light dependent photosynthesis uses the energy from the sunlight to split water and produce oxygen. The pigments, which is located inside the thylakoid, absorb the sunlight and then the plant absorbs the water and breaks down the hydrogen’s and oxygen’s. The oxygen’s then combine and leave the plant as oxygen

The average carbon dioxide consumption for red light was 0.0272 ppt/min. Since no standard deviation error bars overlap then the data shows that all differences between the different color of lights were significant and accurate. Blue light had the best result because more energy was being absorbed in the chlorophyll so photosynthesis was the greatest. The green light didn’t absorb as much carbon dioxide because not a lot of energy was being absorbed, the energy was being reflected by the chlorophyll. Since the various colors of lights have different wavelengths not all wavelengths are used the same in photosynthesis. The pigments in the spinach leaf only absorb certain wavelengths, the wavelengths that aren’t absorbed get reflected. The spinach leaf appears green because the green light has the wavelength that is being reflected. The spinach leaf doesn’t appear red or blue because the wavelengths are being absorbed. So, in conclusion the blue light would work best when trying to grow plants because the plant photosynthesizes the fastest.

Reference List

Speer, B.R., (1997, July 9) Photosynthetic pigments https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/photosynthesis-in-plants/the-light-dependent-reactions-of-photosynthesis/a/light-and-photosynthetic-pigments

Dominick, P, (2018) Photosynthesis 1

The University of Arizona, (2001,