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Musing Posts

in musing-threads •  6 years ago 

How does the intensity of sunlight affect the physiological properties of plants?


the intensity of the matahi light affects the physiological properties of plants, namely photosynthesis rate, transpiration rate, elongated growth and growth toward sunlight, and seed germination.

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  ·  6 years ago (edited)

Sunlight intensity is just the degree of sunlight a plant receive. Normally, the intensity should be optimum. Let's look at what happens if the intensity is low or high.

Plants are phototrophic which means they utilize sunlight to photosynthesize. When there is little sunlight, the rate of photosynthesis is low leading to poor plant growth. It also have effect on the plant yield returning less profit for the farmer.

High sunlight intensity is not good too, as it means an increase in water loss from the plants. There will be increased transpiration which will lead to a scorched leaf because the level of water evaporation from the leaves have increased.

Certain enzymes are deactivated too. Enzymes are normally denatured by heat which leads to certain enzymes found in the plant to be denatured leading to a decrease in photosynthesis


Sunlight is an element of climate that is very important for plant growth through photosynthesis.

Three main factors of radiation that are important for plants are quantity (intensity), quality, and long periods of irradiation.

Intensity is the amount of energy the plant receives in the area and a certain period of time.

Radiation affects the growth rate, transpiration rate and critical period in growth. Reaction Light in photosynthesis is a direct result of the absorption of photons by pigment molecules such as chlorophyll.

Effect of Light Intensity on Plants

Light intensity can affect metabolic processes in plants. Low light intensity is generally caused by shade.

Species Plants that have shaded habitat (shade plant) have a lower photosynthesis rate, low light compensation points, and the photosynthetic response reaches saturation at a lower radiation level than the species that have habitat in the open area (sun plant).

The shade plant light saturation value is lower because the respiration rate in the shade plant is very low, so that with just a little net photosynthesis produced enough is enough to make the net CO2 exchange rate zero. Low Respiration Rate shows the basic form of adaptation that allows the shade plant to survive in a limited light environment.