TRYING TO DEMONSTRATE PHOTOSYNTHESIS

COMPENSATION POINT THE POINT WHEN THE RATE

OF PHOTOSYNTHESIS AND RESPIRATION ARE EQUAL
Respiration is a process which continues all the time in all cells and organisms. If respiration stops, cells and
organisms quickly die. Photosynthesis takes places only when light is available.
Photosynthesis requires carbon dioxide: respiration gives off carbon dioxide. Respiration required oxygen;
photosynthesis gives off oxygen.
There must be a time in a green plant cell, when photosynthesis is starting or when it is slowing down, when the
rates of oxygen uptake by respiration and production by carbon dioxide are more or less balanced. These
moments are called the COMPENSATION POINTS.
In the space below, draw a graph for how oxygen uptake (for respiration) and oxygen production (by
photosynthesis) might appear over 24 hours. Your y axis will be oxygen uptake or production; your x axis will
be time 24 hours. You will have two plot lines:
1. Oxygen uptake for respiration
2. Oxygen production for photosynthesis
You will not have any actual figures for oxygen uptake and production; just plot two lines. One of these lines
will cross the other twice these are the COMPENSATION POINTS.

Now lets see if we can show this somehow.

FLOATING LEAF METHOD OF MEASURING THE RATE OF

PHOTOSYNTHESIS
Fill a small drinking vase with water and add a tiny amount of baking powder. Stir gently until the baking
powder is dissolved. The water should now be carbonated.
Use the drinking straw to cut out 10 little discs from the leaves. Gently put them in the plastic beaker of
carbonated water. They should float. Why?

Removing the oxygen from the leaves, so they sink

1. Fill the syringe with carbonated water, turn it upside
down and put your finger over the entrance hole,
and remove the plunger.
2. Put the circles of spinach in the upside-down
syringe.
3. Replace the plunger.
4. Squeeze the plunger gently to remove any air.
5. Place your thumb or finger over the entrance hole of
the syringe, so no air can enter.
6. Gently pull the plunger downwards. This creates a
vacuum in the syringe, which should force the
oxygen out of the leaves.
7. Release your finger.
8. Repeat this a maximum of three times, by when the
leaves should have fallen to the bottom of the
syringe.

Photosynthesis again
Quickly put the ten leaf discs into the beaker of water. They should sink to the bottom.
Gently (and I mean very gently) swirl them around with the drinking straw, so that they are not sticking to each
other.
If the leaves are in light, they should start photosynthesising and, after a time, will rise again to the surface.

Investigating COMPENSATION POINTS

If there is time and if you really understand this, see if you can modify the investigation to test and get results
for two different light intensities, in order to find which light intensity produces a balance for the rate of oxygen
use by respiration and oxygen production by photosdynthesis the COMPENSATION POINTS.