This discussion is silly. It's like watching George Bush and Nasa
Seek the answers from scientists and people who tested and researched and had the answers already instead of talking nonsense
![Cuss :cuss: :cuss:](/styles/smilies/cussing.gif)
It's rare on this natural earth where there is light for 24hrs a day(and there are very specific adapted vegetation for those places as well) and so plants have adapted and use the night for specific processes.
I prefer a 20/4 cycle of light.
Wiki answers:
Plants do respire at night. It does not require light to take place. This is a process of releasing energy, kind of the opposite to photosynthesising. Photosynthesis is the preparation of the dinner, respiration is the dining process and the belching and flatulence that follows. When a plant respires, it releases carbon dioxide ( at a lower rate than it takes in ), oxygen, heat, water. It occurs on a cellular level with all living things.
Transpiration, on the other hand is the process by which plants release water through their leaves, stems, flowers and roots. It occurs during the process of photosynthesis and gets a break at nightime as plants need light to photosynthesize.
Chemistry World response to: What do plants do at night?
Plants can adapt their metabolism to make sugars during the hours of darkness.
Two related papers in Science and The Plant Journal by John Innes Centre (JIC) scientists report for the first time the mechanisms inside leaves that are responsible for the conversion of starch into sugars during the night. 'Photosynthesis is well understood, but our discovery is really exciting because it gives us a new insight into how plants control the use of the sugar that they produce,' notes Alison Smith, head of the Metabolic Biology Department at JIC.
The paper published in Science (2004, 303, 87) reports the discovery of a previously unknown maltose transporter (controlled by gene MEX1), in the chloroplast envelope membrane, which allows the chloroplast to export maltose produced by breakdown of starch.
In a related paper, published online in The Plant Journal on 12 January 2004 (DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-313X.2003.0212.x), the same researchers report a cytosolic glucosyltransferase (controlled by gene DPE2) the first step on a novel pathway to convert maltose to sucrose.
These discoveries were made using the plant model Arabidopsis, whose genome sequence was published in 2000, illustrating how such sequences are now being used to unravel vital biological processes.
Hamish Kidd