WOLFRAM|DEMONSTRATIONS PROJECT

Fluxes and Energetics of Photosynthesis and Photorespiration

​
leaf intercellular
CO
2
concentration
270
leaf temperature (°C)
25
oxygen concentration (mbar/bar)
210
photosynthetic photon flux density µmol
-2
m
-1
s
​
1500
This Demonstration shows the fluxes and partitioning of energy associated with primary carbon metabolism. The upper-left graph shows the flux of leaf-level net carbon assimilation (
An
;
µmol
-2
m
-1
s
), and the three components that contribute to
An
: the fluxes of photosynthetic carbon uptake (
Vc
;
µmol
-2
m
-1
s
), photorespiratory carbon loss (
Vo
;
µmol
-2
m
-1
s
) and mitochondrial carbon loss (
Rd
;
µmol
-2
m
-1
s
). The three pie charts show the energy partitioned between photosynthesis (
Vc
) and photorespiration (
Vo
) specifically for the partitioning of electrons (top right), of
NADPH
(bottom left) and of
ATP
(bottom right).