Compare The Rate Of Photosynthesis And The Rate Of Respiration

Carbon dioxide is a reactant in the production of glucose molecules during photosynthesis, and is therefore a limiting factor of the rate of photosynthesis. It is taken in through the stomata in the leaves of plants and reacts with light and water to form oxygen gas and organic molecules. Respiration uses the organic molecules and oxygen gas to form carbon dioxide, water, and energy in the form of ATP. This energy is then used by the plant for growth and metabolic functions, making this process essential to life (Benniston and Harriman 2008). Because carbon dioxide is a limiting factor of photosynthesis, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air affects the rate at which it occurs, and typically the rate increases as the concentration

rapa grown in high and low concentrations of carbon dioxide. I hypothesized that the rate of photosynthesis and the rate of respiration of B. rapa grown in high and low carbon dioxide concentrations will not be significantly different. The photosynthesis rate will not differ because B. rapa grown in high and low concentrations of carbon dioxide do not have significantly different stomatal densities (Hansma et al. 2016 unpubl.), and the stomatal density is directly related to the photosynthetic rate (Tanaka et al. 2013) because as stomatal density increases, more carbon dioxide is able to be taken in through the stomata, which allows more glucose to be made. The respiration rate is the same as the photosynthetic rate because it is also dependent on the carbon dioxide, so it also will not be significantly

rapa grown in high and low concentrations of carbon dioxide. As hypothesized, B. rapa grown in high and low concentrations of carbon dioxide did not have significantly different rates of photosynthesis and respiration (Figure 1). This could be because the stomatal density was not affected by growth in different concentrations of carbon dioxide (Hansma et al. 2016 unpubl.), so since the stomata control the intake of carbon dioxide, the stomatal density is directly related to the photosynthetic rate, as well as the respiration