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8.3 Factors Affecting Photosynthesis
How environmental factors such as light intensity and carbon dioxide levels can affect rates of photosynthesis
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Investigating Factors that Affect the Rate of Photosynthesis in Elodea
Aim: To find out which factors affect the rate of photosynthesis in
Elodea.
Variables: The variables that might affect the rate of photosynthesis
in this experiment are:
Temperature: When the temperature rises so does the rate of
photosynthesis; this is because as the temperature around the plant
rises the enzymes controlling photosynthesis inside the chloroplasts
heat up and start moving around faster, the fast moving molecules
collide with other fast moving enzymes causing them to react.
The rate of diffusion of carbon dioxide into the leaves will also ride
as temperature does. This happens because fast moving carbon dioxide
molecules will hit the surface of the leaf far more often than in a
colder atmosphere therefore more molecules will be taken into the leaf
and diffusion will happen faster. However, the rate of photosynthesis
will only keep on rising until the temperature reaches 45'c at that
temperature the enzymes in the chlorophyll will be destroyed and
photosynthesis will stop all together. On the other hand, if the
temperature is too cold then temperature will become the limiting
factor and the enzymes will stop working.
Carbon dioxide: The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere around
the elodea affects the rate at which it will photosynthesise. The
plant needs carbon dioxide to react with water molecules to make
glucose. If there isn't enough carbon dioxide for the plant to take in
the plant wouldn't have enough glucose or food and would die. For the
plant to keep on photosynthesising at a steady rate there needs to be
plenty of water and the temperature needs to be kept at a certain
level because once carbon dioxide is no longer the limiting factor
simply giving the plant more wont have any effect.
Light intensity: It is impossible for plants to photosynthesise in the
dark and they can only photosynthesise slowly in dim light, this is
because the light energy splits up the water into hydrogen and oxygen
it does this by releasing a highly charged electron when sunlight is
We placed elodea plants into three different beakers and labelled them. Since, we are trying to find how temperature can affect the rate of production of carbon dioxide, we had to place them in different temperatures. So, we labelled the first beaker “Elodea heat” and placed it in a water bath that produced sufficient amount of heat. We labelled the second one “Elodea cool” which was placed in an ice bath filled with ice. The next one “Elodea RT” where the elodea was placed under normal room temperature without any interference. And we named the last one “No Elodea” where we placed no elodea in it and kept the beaker in a dark
Oxygen is a 'waste' product of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis takes place in the mesophyll cells inside a green plant's leaves. 6 CO2 + 6 H2O givesC6H12O6 + 6 O2 Carbon Dioxide + Water gives Glucose + Oxygen A limiting factor is one that controls a process, such as organism growth or species population size or distribution. In photosynthesis the rate is affected by three factors, temperature, carbon dioxide concentration and light. Not enough light can slow down the rate of photosynthesis, without enough light a plant cannot photosynthesise very fast, even if there is plenty of water and carbon dioxide.
For part one of the experiment, my team asked the question of which cell fraction of the measured pea seedlings will have a higher ratio of chloroplasts? My group tested for the activity of chloroplasts with three different pairs of cell fractions by two conditions of light and dark in three readings. The first two cell fractions, pellet one and two (P1, P2), are the hard sediments found at the bottom of a tube after it has been centrifuged (which are specimen, like the mitochondria and chloroplast, that are isolated from the rest) (Leicht and McAllister, 2016). The last cell fraction used was the supernatant two (S2), which is just the free liquid surrounding the pellet after the centrifuging of P2 (Leicht and McAllister, 2016). To test for this, DCIP (a chloroplast isolation buffer) was used to
As temperature increases, rate of respiration increases, because particles move faster and with more energy, which in turn means more particles collide with enough energy to react. However, as temperature increases, enzyme stability decreases, so at temperatures above the optimum temperature, the rate will decrease, until all the enzymes have been fully denatured and all the active sites have been lost. Enzymes speed up reactions in organisms. Each enzyme works on a specific substance, called its substrate. The diagram below shows an “E” (an enzyme) catalysing the breakdown of “S” (the substrate) into two different products (“P”).
These leaves will also have no threat of excessive transpiration because the temperature in the shaded area will be lower and the humidity probably higher. Transpiration is the removal (evaporation) of water from a plant through the stomata in the leaves; this water is removed in a cycle due to the active uptake from the roots. Transpiration involves osmosis; which is the diffusion of water from a high concentration to a lower concentration through a partially permeable membrane, until both the concentrations are equally saturated. All these factors i.e. transpiration and photosynthesis, come together to confirm my hypothesis. To support my hypothesis further, I did a pilot study in a meadow in which I studied the population of certain plant species in areas of
The equation of photosynthesis is: 6CO2 + 6H20 Þ C6H12O6 + 6O2 = = = =
Experiment #1: The purpose of this experiment is to investigate the effects of baking soda and light intensity on the rate of photosynthesis of green spinach leave through the observation of floating disk.
The Effect of Light Intensity on the Rate of Oxygen Production in a Plant While Photosynthesis is Taking Place
to this rigid structure of the plants and so, it is very useful as a
is at 0.4, 1, 1.2 it rises rapidly then will slowly level off as you
The Effect of Light Intensity on Photosynthesis Of Elodea Canadensis Introduction I wanted to find out how much the light intensity affected the Photosynthesis in Elodea Camadensa. I decided to do this by measuring the amount of oxygen created during photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the procedure all plants go through to make food. This process uses Carbon dioxide, water and light energy. It produces Oxygen and Glucose.
The opening and closing of stomata is one example of this movement. There are a large amount of growth conditions that can affect a plant. One of the most important of these conditions concerns the type of availability of light present for photosynthesis. By controlling the type of light that a plant receives, its growth can be affected.
An Experiment to Investigate the Effect of Light Intensity on the Rate of Photosynthesis. Introduction Photosynthetics take place in the chloroplasts of green plant cells. It can produce simple sugars using carbon dioxide and water causing the release of sugar and oxygen. The chemical equation of photosynthesis is: [ IMAGE ] 6CO 2 + 6H20 C 6 H12 O 6 + 6O2 It has been proven many times that plants need light to be able to photosynthesize, so you can say that without light the plant would neither photosynthesize nor survive.
Photosynthesis is highly sensitive to water stress. Plant photosynthesis decrease with reduction in relative water content and leaf water potential. Mechanism of photosynthesis involves various components such as photosynthetic pigments and photosystem, the electron transport
The three factors that can affect the rate of photosynthesis are light intensity, concentration of carbon dioxide and temperature.