Exploiting heterogeneous environments: does photosynthetic acclimation optimize carbon gain in fluctuating light?

ABSTRACT: Plants have evolved complex mechanisms to balance the efficient use of absorbed light energy in photosynthesis with the capacity to use that energy in assimilation, so avoiding potential damage from excess light. This is particularly important under natural light, which can vary according to weather, solar movement and canopy movement. Photosynthetic acclimation is the means by which plants alter their leaf composition and structure over time to enhance photosynthetic efficiency and productivity. However there is no empirical or theoretical basis for understanding how leaves track historic light levels to determine acclimation status, or whether they do this accurately. We hypothesized that in fluctuating light (varying in both intensity and frequency), the light-response characteristics o

SUBMITTER: Retkute R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4629418 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature