Does Leaf Color Affect the Rate of Photosynthesis?
Rose Nazarian & Shawn Murie CU Boulder During this lab we wanted to determine if the color of the leaves affects the rate of photosynthesis. We hypothesized that if green leaves have a significantly higher rate of photosynthesis (consumption of CO2) than yellow leaves, because green leaves contain more green chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b photosynthetic pigments than yellow leaves, then the color of the leaves affects the rate of photosynthesis. We used a sealed chamber, in which we placed green and yellow leaves from the same tree, and measured changes in CO2 concentrations using a CO2 probe. We tested three replicates of each color of leaves for five minutes in the light to measure photosynthesis and respiration, and five minutes in the dark to measure respiration alone. By subtracting the light reactions from the dark, we found the rate photosynthesis alone. Our mean value for photosynthesis in the green leaves was -9.71 ppm/g and the mean value for the yellow leaves was -2.25 ppm/
