Prawn Connery
Well-Known Member
Individual wavelengths carry more or less energy - blue carries more energy than green, which carries more energy than red.The opinion paper says, "The majority of green light is useful in photosynthesis". Then in the very next sentence it says, "Green light is the least efficiently used color of light in the visible spectrum". -- Meaning, the paper is saying the exact opposite.
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Plant chlorophyll has little use for green wavelength light. Sure it may use a little, but it uses it inefficiently.
Plants absorb and reflect different wavelengths at different rates - green is generally absorbed less than blue and red.
Photosynthetic efficiency is how efficiently the plant uses each wavelength that is absorbed - green may be less absorbed, but it tends to produce a stronger photosynthetic reaction than blue light.
So there are three basic factors that determine rate of photosynthesis - you cannot look at each one in isolation.
A chocolate bar has more sugar than a celery stick. Therefore you need to eat a lot more celery to get the same amount of energy. Green doesn't need to be absorbed as efficiently, because once it is absorbed, it is used more efficiently by the plant.