Factors Affecting Respiration

and Photosynthesis

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 Basic Concepts
• Growth requires a net gain of energy
– Photosynthetic energy gain must exceed respiratory
energy loss
PG=PN+RD
PG= Gross Photosynthesis
= total energy produced of fixed CO2
PN= net photosynthesis
=energy difference between PG and RD
RD= respiration
• The amount of carbon assimilated by the plant
minus the amount of carbon it lost through
respiration is called the net productivity
PG=RD
Zero growth
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 Measures of Photosynthetic Rate
1. Moles of CO2 fixed or absorbed
2. Moles of O2 evolved

– Light and dark bottle

3. Amount of dry matter produced per unit per area of
time

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 Variation of Carbon Fixation in
Different Ecosystem
• 1000 to 3500 g m-2= tropical forests
• 100 to 3500 g m-2= cultivated lands
• 0 to 10 g m-2= desert sands, ice lands

7 to 12 billion metric tons

Global annual Carbon Fixation

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 Factors Affecting Respiration
1. Substrate Availability
2. Oxygen Availability
3. Temperature
4. Type and Age of Plant
5. Other Factors

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1. Substrate Availability
– Low substrate (sugar)= low respiration
– Extensive substrate starvation
• Proteins and fats are used
– High respiration rates after sundown
• Accumulation of photosynthates during the light period
• Effect in cooling temperature

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2. Oxygen availability
– Variations are too small to influence respiration in
roots, stems and leaves
• High level of cytochrome oxidase in mitochondria
– High affinity for oxygen
– Bulky tissues
• Low oxygen diffusion
– Roots (aerenchyma)
• Large intercellular spaces caused by lysis or adjoining
parenchyma cells
– Pasteur effect
• High CO2 production and low ATP yields, with sugar used as
a substrate (flooded soil)
– Hypoxia and anoxia
– Storage roots can survive low or no oxygen availability
• Slower respiration hence faster glycolysis

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3. Temperature
– 30 to 350C, respiration increases but less rapidly
– 400C
• Decrease due to enzyme denaturation

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4. Type and Age of Plant
– Bacteria, fungi and algae respire more rapidly than
seed plants
– Root tips and meristematic tissues have higher
respiratory rates than non metabolic tissues like
woody stems
– Respiration (high)= vegetative growth
• Young roots, leaves and growing flowers
• Declines before flowering
– Respiration increases as the fruit ripens
• Increase the temperature of the fruit
– calburo
• Declines when the fruit have been picked
– Climacteric rise

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5. Other factors
– CO2 (often inhibit the process)
– Wounding
• Facilitates entry of oxygen or activates enzymes of
respiration
• Mechanical stimulation
– Salt respiration
• Addition of ions to plants previously grown in distilled
water

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 Respiration and Crop Yield
• Respiration contributes to the overall net
carbon balance of a plant
– Variations
• Final agronomic yield

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 Factors Affecting Photosynthesis
1. Light irradiance
2. Carbon dioxide
3. Temperature
4. Water
5. Nutrients

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• The potential rate of CO2 assimilation is the
function of the photosynthetic system’s
interaction with environmental conditions.

Limiting factor
• Factor present in the least amount
• Determines the rate of process
Law of the Minimum
• Increasing the limiting factor, increases the rates of
process

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1. Light Irradiance
PPF- Photosynthetic photon flux
– Light irradiance (number of photons absorbed)
– µmol m-2 s-1
– Indicates the number of mole quanta that impenge on a leaf
surface surface per unit time measured within the
Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) of 400
to 700 nm
– 2000 µmol m-2 s-1 at full sunlight

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• Further increase in PPF does not anymore increase PN
– Further increase in PPF
• Stomatal closure and photoinhibition
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– C4 leaves have substantial RD
– CO2 evolution decreases with increasing irradiance
• Increases PG
Quantum yield
• Mole CO2 uptake or O2 evolved per mole of absorbed
photons
– C4 less efficient in dim light compared to C3
– C4 200 to 400 µmol m-2 s-1
» PN continues to increase
Light Compensation Point
• The irradiance at which photosynthesis (CO2 uptake) just
balances respiration (CO2 evolved), where the net CO2
exchange is zero
• Dry weight will increase when the irradiance is above the LC
• Differences in LC are caused by differences in RD rates
RD=low=LC
» The leaf requires less light for the level of photosynthesis
that will balance the lost of CO2
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 Shade Plants
Greener leaf
Larger leaf area
Thin leaf
Less stroma, more chlorophyll, more
grana
-harvest light efficiently
Less adaptation to sun plants
Cannot be move to direct sunlight
Sun Plants
Bright green leaf
Smaller leaf area
Thick leaf (longer or more layers of
palisade cells)
More stroma, less chlorophyll, less grana
Adapt to shade environment

Leaf Area Index (LAI)

• leaf ratio of a plant to the ground area which it grows
• Productivity increases with increasing LAI
• Vertically oriented leaf photosynthesize faster than plants with horizontal
leaf

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2. Carbon Dioxide
– enhanced by higher CO2 especially when stomates
are partly closed
• Favors carbon fixation
– CO2 supply
• stomata, mesophyll and chloroplast membrane
– C4 and CAM
• Maintain high photosynthetic rates at low CO2
Carbon dioxide Compensation Point (CC)
• CO2 Concentration at which PN just balances respiratory
lost
– Net CO2 is 0

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– C4 can still photosynthesize at lower CO2 by using
its internal CO2

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– Greenhouse Effect

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3. Temperature
– Species specific response
Optimum temperature
• Point at which the capacities of the various steps of
photosynthesis are balanced
• PN is lower at lower temperature and increases to an
optimum temperature
– PN Falls steeply beyond the optimum temperature
» Enzyme denaturation, metabolite transport, diffusion
– Low temperature limits Pi that limits PN

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– C4 are inefficient at low temperature due to
membrane damage and chlorophyll synthesis
inhibition
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– As temperature increases and photosynthetic
rises, PR increases more than PG resulting in small
increase in PN
• The solubility of CO2 relative to O2 is smaller at higher
temperature

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4. Water
– Sources of electron (reactant)
– For every mole of CO2 absorbed by the leaf, there
is a corresponding amount of water lost by the
plant
Transpiration Ratio
• Amount of water lost per mole of CO2 fixed
• Decreasing order for C3, C4 and CAM
– Water stress
• Smaller stomatal conductance= decrease CO2 /O2 ratio
– Increase PR = decrease PN and PG

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5. Nutrients
– Depends on the specific photosynthetic step
– Nitrogen
• Proteins in the thylakoid and rubisco
– Chlorophylls and proteins
– Phosphate
• Component of ATP
– Mn, Cl and Ca
• Oxygen revolution during photolysis of water
– Iron
• ETC
– Magnesium
• Chlorophyll component
• photoprotection

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