Becker's World of the Cell 9th Edition by Lewis Kleinsmith, Jeff Hardin, Gregory Paul Bertoni

Exercise 7

Photosynthetic Efficiency. On page 312we estimated the maximum photosynthetic efficiency for the conversion of red light, carbon dioxide, and water to glyceraldehyde. Under laboratory conditions, a photosynthetic organism might convert 31% of the light energy striking it to chemical bond energy of organic molecules. In reality, however, photosynthetic efficiency is far lower, closer to 5% or less. Considering a plant growing in a natural environment, suggest four reasons for this discrepancy.