Please Help! Factors affecting the rate of Photosynthesis.

Factors affecting photosynthesis

Three factors can limit the rate of photosynthesis: light intensity, carbon dioxide concentration and temperature.

Light intensity

Without enough light, a plant cannot photosynthesise very quickly - even if there is plenty of water and carbon dioxide. Increasing the light intensity will boost the rate of photosynthesis.

A graph with rate of photosynthesis on the y axis and light intensity on the x axis. The plotted line rises steeply and then levels off to horizontal.

Carbon dioxide concentration

Even if there is plenty of light, a plant cannot photosynthesise if there is insufficient carbon dioxide.

A graph with rate of photosynthesis on the y axis and light intensity on the x axis. The plotted line rise steeply and then levels off to horizonal. During the steep part light is the limiting factor. During the horizontal part another factor has become limiting.

TemperatureIf it gets too cold, the rate of photosynthesis will decrease. Plants cannot photosynthesise if it gets too hot.

A graph with rate of photosynthesis on the y axis and carbon dioxide concentration on the x axis. The plotted line rise steeply and then levels off to horizonal. During the steep part carobn dioxide is the limiting factor. During the horizontal part another factor has become limiting.

If you plot the rate of photosynthesis against the levels of these three limiting factors, you get graphs like the ones shown above.

In practice, any one of these factors could limit the rate of photosynthesis.

hydroxyl -oh

alcohols, always polar, can form hydrogen bonds with h2o molecules

carboxyl -cooh  

cargoxylic acids, has acidic properties which is a source of hydrogen ions, found in cells in ionized for with a charge of oh-1

carbonyl > co

ketone if within skeleton, aldehyde if group is at the end of skeleton, k & a may be structural isomers, it determines 2 sugars (ketose & aldose)

amino -nh2

amines, acts as a base, it can pick up h+ ions from surrounding solution, ionized with charge of 1+

methyl ch2

addition to rna/dna affects and gene expression

phosphate -opo3 ²⁻

organic phosphates, contributes to negative charge to, molecule that it is a part of, and potential to react with h20

sulfhydryl -sh

thiols, cross-linking stabilize the protein, and it is structure