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I have heard the theory that with the increase of CO2 in the air, the speed of the photosynthesis would increase, thereby limiting the increase of CO2 levels.

What is currently the rate limiting factor of photosynthetic reactions in plants? Is it really CO2, or rather the limited energy that a plant can absorb from sunlight?

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  • $\begingroup$ Do you have a source for that theory? $\endgroup$
    – MattDMo
    May 16, 2015 at 19:00
  • $\begingroup$ @MattDMo Unfortunately, no. I think I've heard it back in highschool in connection with the Gaia theorem, as an example of a homeostatic process of Earth (along with the theory of increased oxygen increasing the chances of forest fires,thereby regulating itself ) I wonder if these have scientific basis. $\endgroup$
    – AndrasG
    May 17, 2015 at 7:45
  • $\begingroup$ @WYSIWYG - how on earth did you get the subscript in the title? $\endgroup$
    – AliceD ♦
    May 18, 2015 at 4:27
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    $\begingroup$ @AliceD It is UTF. You can either get it from the character map or enable compose key in your keyboard and then use [hold compose] : _ → [number] for subscripts and [hold compose]: ^ → [number] for superscripts. It doesn't work with alphabets (no alphabet subscripts/superscripts in UTF yet) $\endgroup$
    – WYSIWYG
    May 18, 2015 at 4:36

1 Answer 1

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The rate-limiting step of photosynthesis is the CO2 assimilating enzyme Rubisco (short for ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase) (Jensen, 2000). It uses ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate and CO2 as substrates to generate glucose.

Given that Rubisco is the rate limiting step in photosynthesis, an increase in its substrate CO2 would expectedly lead to an increase in photosynthesis. However, the regulation of Rubisco is complex and is influenced not only by CO2, but also by O2 (which competes with CO2 for the active site), Mg2+ and a regulating enzyme called Rubisco activase (Jensen, 2000). Hence, the effects of an increase in atmospheric CO2 may be more complex than simply enhancing photosynthesis by increasing Rubisco activity.

Indeed, a review by Poorter (1993) showed that a doubling of CO2 lead to an average increase in photosynthesis of only 37% across more than 150 plant species. He describes various factors that determine photosynthesis rates other than CO2:

  1. One factor that limited photosynthesis under high CO2 was nitrogen (N). Since Rubisco is an enzyme, it has to be synthesized from amino acids. As Rubisco constitutes about 30% of the total protein in a plant leaf, Rubisco is probably the most abundant protein on earth and a major sink for plant nitrogen (Jensen, 2000). For example, C3 species capable of symbiosis with N2-fixing organisms had higher growth increases compared to other C3 species under high CO2;
  2. Certain plants utilize CO2 better than others. CAM species were the least responsive, followed by C4 plants, while C3 plants increased their photosynthesis rates the most under high CO2. Examples of C3 plants are herbaceous crop plants (Poorter, 1993);
  3. Plants with a large intrinsic growth rate may benefit more from high CO2. These plants are said to have a high sink strength, as they rapidly convert additional photosynthesis products into outgrowth.

References
- Jensen, PNAS (2000); 97(24): 12937–38
- Poorter, Veg (1993);104/105: 77-97

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  • $\begingroup$ Isn't the available sunlight the primary rate limitation? After all, a plant with access to abundant CO2, water, and other nutrients still can convert only as much as the incoming solar energy allows. $\endgroup$
    – jamesqf
    May 18, 2015 at 18:12
  • $\begingroup$ @jamesqf -The question is on the rate limiting step under high CO2. CO2 fixation is part of the Calvin cycle and hence independent of sunlight. However, you are right that, quite obviously, the Calvin cycle cannot run without sufficient sunlight for the Krebs cycle. The studies cited revealed limiting factors other than sunlight or CO2 when sunlight was abundant. In other words, with enough sunlight and increased CO2, other factors become rate limiting preventing the fixation of more CO2. $\endgroup$
    – AliceD ♦
    May 19, 2015 at 0:02

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