Question

How is light energy trapped by plants and used by the chloroplast membrane to generate ATP and NADPH?

Why do photosynthetic pigments only trap certain light wavelengths?

Answer 1

1. How is light energy trapped by plants and used by the chloroplast membrane to generate ATP and NADPH?

In plants, photosynthesis occurs in chloroplasts, large organelles found mainly in leaf.

Chloroplasts absorb sunlight and use it in conjunction with water and carbon dioxide gas to produce food for the plant.

Chloroplasts capture light energy from the sun to produce the free energy stored in ATP and NADPH through a process called photosynthesis

2.Why do photosynthetic pigments only trap certain light wavelengths?

Pigments are "molecules that absorb specific wavelengths (energies) of light and reflect all others."

Plant pigment molecules absorb only light in the wavelength range of 700 nm to 400 nm; this range is referred to as photosynthetically-active radiation.

The color or wavelength of light does affect photosynthesis, which is how plants can basically create their own food. This is the reason why plants are green is they are absorbing the other wavelengths of light but reflecting back the green.

Violet and blue have the shortest wavelengths and the most energy, whereas red has the longest wavelengths and carries the least amount of energy.

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