Dear netters,
Does anyone know how much of the total sun light energy that hits the
earth, is *really* absorbed by the photosynthetic organisms? I have seen
figures indicating that one to a few percent of the solar irradiation on
the earth surface is utilized by plants and cyanobacteria. But doesn't
this represent the net absorption, based on the amount of biomass that
is created e.g. per year? Is it possible to calculate, on a global
scale, the total amount of initially absorbed light energy including
that which is lost during light harvesting and energy conversion, basic
metabolism etc?
Best regards,
Ann Magnuson
Dept of Biochemistry
Lund University, Sweden
ann.magnuson at biokem.lu.se
