thoughts on coral photosynthesis

i was just thinking about this,

photosynthesis is the process of which plants, and some protists convert light and CO2 to O2 and high protein sugars for the plant to survive on. within the thylakoids of the chloroplasts within the cells of the plants/algae is where the reaction takes place. the light dependent and the light independent cycle. both cycles are needed for the plant to survive. however within the light dependent process of photosynthesis, photosystems 1 and 2 gather energy from the sun to transfer to the electrons to continue the cycle. however they gather most their energy from the blue, green, and violet parts of the spectrum and not so much the yellow and orange side.

this is where stuff starts to not make sense, wouldnt the algae within our corals have the same photosynthetic cycle and therefore require light of that wavelength? but then this would mean that actinics or violet bulbs would grow corals better than any daylight bulb. does anybody understand this?

 

Actually Red-Orange and Purple-Blue spectrum are best for plants and photosythesis green and yellow are the least effective.

 

my textbook says just green, violet, and blue. they can absorb red orange but on the graph it says they take in about 70 percent more blue, green, and violet.

even if that was true wouldnt that mean that actinics would at least grow coral as good as good if not much better than any daylight bulb?

 

Here's my opinion on the subject...

http://www.3reef.com/forums/led-aqu...ow-they-effected-light-wavlegnths-105878.html

 

Unfortunately I was not able to get prototype LEDs (at the time of my research) to actually measure the PAR of and to test and measure growth rates of corals under.

I do have par30s now, so maybe once I get a bunch of corals at the end of this month, I will attempt to do some testing.

 

wow! quite a read! some great info there!

 

Well the spectrum of light used for photosynthesis is determined by pigments. Plants have chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and carotenoids. Each pigment absorbs a different wavelength because it is able to absorb the specific amount of energy from the photons at that wavelength.

I'm not certain, but I'm sure the algae on corals have different pigments than plants which allow them to carry out photosynthesis at various wavelengths. This would also explain the diverse colors of corals. I remember my bio professor talking about corals and their colors. He said that their color is dependent on the type of algae on them. This is why corals bleach, the algae that once lived on them died.

 

the photosynthetic cycle contains two pigments, this does not mean each chloroplast contains two pigments. both pigments, photosystem one and two are the ones taking in the light, i do not believe there is more than one photosynthetic cycle. algae, plants, and protists must all have the same cycle. if each different type of plant had a different photosynthetic cycle, well that just wouldnt be possible.

also about the color if you think about it there are quire a few plants that require photosynthesis but are not always green in color. this whole thing is quite confusing it seems.

 

There are way more than two pigments in chloroplasts. They contain chlorophyll a, b, and carotenoids (which is actually a family of pigments). The two photosystems are how plants use the excited electrons (gained from photons of light) produce ATP and NADPH.

This is why leaves change colors in the fall. As chlorophyll a (reflects mainly green light) and chlorophyll b (reflects yellow/green) break down, the carotenoids are last to go which are various shades of yellow and orange.

 

there are more than 2 pigments in the chloroplasts but only two different types of pigments within the thylakoid.

photosystems 1 and 2 are just diferent names for the chlorophyll. i dont believe carotenoids are a part of a light dependant reaction.