In <9401071648.AA03998 at net.bio.net>
mroussel at alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (Marc Roussel) writes:
>> In article <2gjq3f$21o at mserv1.dl.ac.uk> SCHLOSSER at ciit.org writes:
[snip]
>>I assumed that the question was to what extent the process heats or cools
>>the plant involved (in which case, one should not count the photons, since
>>absorbing them does not cool the plant). This might be important for plants
>>living at very high or low temperatures.
>> I find it hard to believe that this would be a significant effect.
>Because photosynthesis always takes place near the surface of the plant
>(usually in thin structures like leaves), even a very small thermal
>coupling term to the environment should suffice to hold the temperature
>at that of the environment, unless the conductivity of the plant is very
>large. I don't think that this is usually (ever?) the case.
>> Marc R. Roussel
>mroussel at alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca
What if one where raising a photsynthetic organism in a bio-reactor that
is large enough that heat-transfer (cooling) is a problem? Would photsynthesis
change the heat balance on the reactor significantly? In which direction?
Paul
schlosser at beta.ciit.org
