How did different colors of light affect c02 consumption in spinach leaves? Background Photosynthesis is a process by which plants and other autotrophs make their own food using sunlight energy. Plants take in water, carbon dioxide, and use sunlight energy to create glucose and oxygen. Plants use the glucose as energy and release the oxygen as a by-product. Photosynthesis takes place in the chloroplasts; green organelles inside plant cells. The thylakoid inside Chloroplasts absorb the sunlight energy needed for photosynthesis.The pigment in the thylakoid absorbs light; however, plants reflect green light. This gives plants their color. If different colors of light are shown on spinach leaves and CO2 consumption is measured, then the spinach leaves given green light will consume the least amount of CO2 due to reduced photosynthesis activity. Materials -Computer -Heat lamp -Spinach leaves -RIngstand -Biochamber -Vernier CO2 gas chamber -Utility clamp -Blue 3 watt LED bulbs -Green 3 watt LED bulbs -Red 3 watt LED bulbs -Clear 3 watt LED bulbs Procedure 1. The spinach leaves were soaked in water for about an hour and a half before the experiment. 2. The Vernier computer interface software …show more content…
The average CO2 consumption for green light was 0.00773533 ppt/min while all the other colors of light tested are equal to, or exceed 0.01651 ppt CO2 consumed per minute. Graph 1: Amount of CO2 Consumed clearly shows that photosynthesis performed most poorly under green light. Red, blue, and white light each caused more CO2 consumption than green light. Because the pigment in the green, photosynthesising chloroplasts reflects green light, there was little photosynthesis occuring while green light was being shown on spinach leaves. The green light is reflected, rather than absorbed by plants and therefore does not provide the needed sunlight energy to make photosynthesis