Factors Affecting Photosynthesis

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Majority of plants have a substance within the leaf called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is a pigment that takes in energy from the sun and store it as food by a process called photosynthesis. This process is essential to all organisms on earth because it supplies them with energy, either by eating the plants directly or indirectly by eating other organisms. Chlorophyll, light and carbon dioxide are needed for starch production in a plant.

The leaf structure of a plant have many features, so it can function and help keep the plant alive. The features of a leaf can be seen in figure 1. The epidermis is a skin-like cell that contains waxy protection called cutin that is located in the cuticle, which keeps the leaf from losing water (Plant Structures: Leaves, Colorado State University 2012). The palisade cells holds great amounts of chloroplasts, which contain a green pigment called chlorophyll (Plant Structures: Leaves, Colorado State University 2012). The majority of photosynthesis occurs in the palisade cells (Plant Structures: Leaves, Colorado State University 2012). The vascular bundle (veins) is made up of xylem and phloem tissues (In class note taking, biology exercise book 2014). The xylem tissue provides the leaf with water and dissolved minerals, whereas the phloem tissue supplies the plant with energy by providing food from the leaf to the rest of the plant (biology4kids, Andrew Rader Studios. The mesophyll cells are cells that allows the oxygen, carbon dioxide and the water vapour to move freely around the plant. It also has a spongy look because of its loosely packed cells. The stomata allows the gases to travel around cells because of its space. The guard cells have the ability to change the size of the stom...

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...ded for starch production in a leaf for the reason that the photosynthesis equation (6CO2 + 6H20 → C6 H12O6 + 602) requires 6 carbon dioxide molecules. Therefore, without carbon dioxide, photosynthesis will not occur and for that reason, plants cannot make glucose, hence there will be no starch production because glucose is used to form more complex molecules such as starch, lipids and proteins (In class note taking, biology exercise book, 2014).

An experimental inquiry will be conducted to find out whether chlorophyll, light and carbon dioxide are essential for starch production in plants.

Chlorophyll, light and carbon dioxide are required for starch production in a leaf because chlorophyll captures light-energy from the sun and converts it into foods such as glucose and starch and if light is not present, chlorophyll cannot capture radiant-energy from the sun.

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