Current climate change models might be overestimating how much carbon dioxide plants can suck from the atmosphere.
Thanks to molecular research on photosynthesis done at the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory (PRL), non-MSU atmospheric scientists have factored in a lesser understood photosynthetic limitation into their models. The result: models suggest that atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations might increase more rapidly than previously expected.
Photosynthesis supports life on Earth. Photosynthetic organisms capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and process it through a series of reactions known as the Calvin-Benson cycle.
Specifically, the carbon is used to make triose phosphate, a molecule which eventually turns into sucrose, the energy currency that powers plants and the food chain above them. The process is referred to as TPU (triose phosphate utilization).
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