Photosynthetic activity is highly variable and depends on temperature, carbon dioxide, relative humidity, as well as crop species and cultivar. Therefore, no charts exist. You can, however, measure the photosynthetic activity of a plant sample either over the duration of its development (dry weight/time --> rate of carbon fixation) or instantaneously by using a SPAD chlorophyl meter.

Hi Wouter,

to begin with you may want to have a look at:

The Plant Trait Database TRY: http://www.try-db.org/de/de.php

Reich P.B., Ellsworth D.S., Walters M.B., Vose J.M., Gresham C., Volin J.C. & Bowman W.D. (1999) Generality of leaf trait relationships: A test across six biomes. Ecology, 80, 1955-1969.

Schulze E.-D., Kelliher F.M., Körner C., Lloyd J. & Leuning R. (1994) Relationships among maximum stomatal Conductance, Ecosystem Surface Conductance, Carbon Assimilation Rate and Plant Nitrogen Nutrition: A Global Ecology Scaling Exercise. Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst., 25, 629-660.

Reich P.B., Walters M.B. & Ellsworth D.S. (1997) From tropics to tundra: Global convergence in plant functioning. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 94, 13730-13734.

Medlyn B.E., Badeck F.W., De Pury D.G.G., Barton C.V.M., Broadmeadow M., Ceulemans R., De Angelis P., Forstreuter M., Jach M.E., Kellomäki S., Laitat E., Marek M., Philippot S., Rey A., Strassemeyer J., Laitinen K., Liozon R., Portier B., Roberntz P., Wang K. & Jarvis P.G. (1999) Effects of elevated [CO2] on photosynthesis in European forest species: a meta-analysis of model parameters. Plant, Cell & Environment, 22, 1475-1495.

Peterson A.G., Ball J.T., Luo Y.Q., Field C.B., Reich P.B., Curtis P.S., Griffin K.L., Gunderson C.A., Norby R.J., Tissue D.T., Forstreuter M., Rey A. & Vogel C.S. (1999) The photosynthesis leaf nitrogen relationship at ambient and elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide: a meta-analysis. Global Change Biology, 5, 331-346.

Best regards

Franz

Hi Wouter,

I worked harvest index (HI) of durum wheat genotypes, in other words, balanced HI quantitavely of mass of plants after harvesting. This is another point of view of photosynthetic capacity in pants if you are working in macro level.

Regards,

Cigdem Savaskan.   

Photosynthetic carbon fixation surely varies with each and individual organisms belonging to different groups based on the environmental factors for e.g., excessive irradiance, low or high temperature, drought, toxic chemicals, and herbicides. Pigments compositions, antenna size, leaf structure (shape and surface area availability for light etc.). Better you go through already published research article in this regard and you may get plenty of information.

Regards

Kumar

Hi Wouter, in the trends plant science there recent reviews on this particular subject, rather focus on productivity.

Intuitively one might expect that among the highest photosynthetic capacities would be found in temperate zone plants in the early summer, when new leaves have emerged and all the photosynthetic equipment is brand new.  This is the time when the most new biomass is being added.