Description

Students measure photosynthetic rates of leaves by carbon dioxide assimilation. They investigate how photosynthetic rates change as a function of light intensity, light quality, temperature, and ambient carbon dioxide. This lab can be used to demonstrate concepts such as dark respiration, photochemical efficiency, carbon dioxide conductance, light compensation points, photosynthetic saturation, and differences in photosynthetic rates of C-3 versus C-4 plants, sun versus shade plants, and different levels of polyploidy.