The Biology of Plants: Making Food - Information on the process of photosynthesis and the role that chlorophyll plays in plants making food. Chlorophyll: Why Plants Always Wear Green - An explanation of how chlorophyll gives plants their color from a horticulture specialist.
Blooming Plants - These plants all produce beautiful flowering blooms. Pigments for Photosynthesis - An overview of the different pigments needed for photosynthesis including chlorophyll, carotenoids, and lycopene.
Introduction to Photosynthesis - An easy to understand overview of the process of photosynthesis, also includes information on pigments, and light reactions. What is Photosynthesis? Molecular Expressions Cell Biology: Chloroplasts - Information on chloroplasts and their importance in photosynthesis; includes a labeled diagram showing chloroplast structure in plant cells. They do this through a process called photosynthesis , which uses a green pigment called chlorophyll. A pigment is a molecule that has a particular color and can absorb light at different wavelengths, depending on the color.
There are many different types of pigments in nature, but chlorophyll is unique in its ability to enable plants to absorb the energy they need to build tissues. This is where photosynthesis takes place. Phytoplankton, the microscopic floating plants that form the basis of the entire marine food web, contain chlorophyll, which is why high phytoplankton concentrations can make water look green.
The energy absorbed from light is transferred to two kinds of energy-storing molecules. Through photosynthesis, the plant uses the stored energy to convert carbon dioxide absorbed from the air and water into glucose, a type of sugar. Plants use glucose together with nutrients taken from the soil to make new leaves and other plant parts. The process of photosynthesis produces oxygen, which is released by the plant into the air.
Chlorophyll gives plants their green color because it does not absorb the green wavelengths of white light. That particular light wavelength is reflected from the plant, so it appears green.
Plants that use photosynthesis to make their own food are called autotrophs. Animals that eat plants or other animals are called heterotrophs. Spiders' Web Secrets Unraveled. Using a novel technique, researchers have been able The researchers found that blood stem cells, which are among the smallest cells in the body, lose Working with the These marine invertebrates tend to move slowly and Print Email Share.
Twenty-percent of spatial variation in leaf economic traits specific leaf area, leaf longevity, photosynthetic rate, and leaf N and P content is associated with the coexistence of different plant species Wright et al. Furthermore, previous control experiments showed that Chl is significantly associated with temperature and moisture Yamane et al. However, the environmental factors used in this study were MAT and MAP, it would be an interesting idea to obtain the real-time data of chlorophyll and temperature and precipitation for future work.
For the relationship between Chl and soil nutrients, we found that soils explain a small portion of total variation, because important elements are prioritized for important organs.
As an important photosynthetic pigment, leaves should receive more nutrient elements for Chl, even if the low content of nutrient elements in soils has a small effect on Chl. Therefore, future research should focus on understanding how soils and the climate influence or optimize ecosystem functioning through a combination of element allocation.
In addition, light is an important factor for chlorophyll synthesis, however in our analyzes light was not taken into account. To my knowledge, radiation could be measured using satellite data, and light extinction within forest canopies can be modeled. These would be potential next steps for our research.
The main purpose of most studies on Chl in natural communities has been to establish a link between Chl and ecosystems functioning, because Chl is widely considered an important factor influencing leaf photosynthetic capacity Singsaas et al. Using four deciduous tree species sampled across three growing seasons, Croft et al.
Furthermore, Chl can be modeled accurately from remotely sensed data Croft et al. However, our results showed that significant differences in Chl occur among coexisting species, functional groups, and communities. Furthermore, the vertical structure of the plant community generated strong variation in the light environment, which might result in the accumulation of redundant Chl.
In addition, our previous studies have also found that Chl showed a weak correlation with GPP in the communities Li et al. Therefore, the photosynthetic capacity in a given natural forest community could be overestimated by using Chl. In other words, when using Chl as a proxy of GPP in the natural community, the outputs should be treated with caution.
While it is a clever concept to optimize models using Chl data derived through remote sensing technology, more research is required to link Chl and GPP in the natural community in a way that is both representative and informative. Significant variation in Chl was observed among different plant species, functional groups, and communities. Unexpectedly, Chl showed a very weak latitudinal pattern from tropical monsoon forests to cold-temperate coniferous forests, because of significant variation among coexisting species.
This interspecific variation was the main factor affecting Chl, rather than soil and climate. In conclusion, this approach should only being used if scientists are able to link Chl with ecosystem functioning in natural forest communities objectively in future studies.
All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Baker, N. Chlorophyll fluorescence: a probe of photosynthesis in vivo. Plant Biol. Blomberg, S. Testing for phylogenetic signal in comparative data: behavioral traits are more labile. Evolution 57, — Canadell, J. Chen, Y. Leaf nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations of woody plants differ in responses to climate, soil and plant growth form.
Ecography 36, — Comas, L. Patterns in root traits of woody species hosting arbuscular and ectomycorrhizas: implications for the evolution of belowground strategies. Croft, H. Leaf chlorophyll content as a proxy for leaf photosynthetic capacity.
Change Biol. Remote Sens. Felsenstein, J. Phylogenies and the comparative method. Fredeen, A. Effects of phosphorus nutrition on photosynthesis in Glycine max L. Planta , — Freschet, G. Global to community scale differences in the prevalence of convergent over divergent leaf trait distributions in plan asssemblages.
Garnier, E. A trait-based approach to comparative functional plant ecology: concepts, methods and applications for agroecology. A review. Han, W. Biogeography and variability of eleven mineral elements in plant leaves across gradients of climate, soil and plant functional type in China.
He, H. Large-scale estimation and uncertainty analysis of gross primary production in Tibetan alpine grasslands. He, J.
Taxonomic identity, phylogeny, climate and soil fertility as drivers of leaf traits across Chinese grassland biomes. Plant Res.
0コメント