Limitions in Photosynthesis!?!?!?!?!

[ksam]

Hey Bio People!
I have a question!

We have a practical coming up where we cover half of a plant with foil. We then wait for around 48 hours and then we place the leaf into boiling water then into ethanol. Next up, we put iodine solution on it and hopefully half of it will turn blue-black. That's just a brief overview of the pract. But there is a question regarding limitations in this practical, and I am stuck on ideas for this.

What are some limitations that you guys can think of! I can't think of anything!

[MightyCookie]

Limitations of photosynthesis basically relate to factors that limit the efficiency of photosyn.
So, I think that a decreased amount of CO2, light intensity or water would infact act as limitations of your prac.
I'm not entirely sure, but my sac is also coming up, so that's what just first came to mind. 
Goodluck though!

[nhmn0301]

Hey Bio People!
I have a question!

We have a practical coming up where we cover half of a plant with foil. We then wait for around 48 hours and then we place the leaf into boiling water then into ethanol. Next up, we put iodine solution on it and hopefully half of it will turn blue-black. That's just a brief overview of the pract. But there is a question regarding limitations in this practical, and I am stuck on ideas for this.

What are some limitations that you guys can think of! I can't think of anything!

For the covering half of the plant with foil, you can probably say this limits the light intensity that reaches the plan. Hence, decrease SA:V that the leaves can expose to sunlight, decrease the rate of photosynthesis.
For the boiling water and then into ethanol, remember that leaf has cell wall and these cell wall are made up from cellulose. If the heat is sufficient to break the bonding of the cellulose, the leaf will lose its structure due to the absence in structural support of the cell wall. Secondly, if you place them into ethanol, which is lipid-soluble, they can easily dissolve the phospholipid bilayer of the leaves, which is also made up from fats (like-disolve-like). Hence, chlorophyll will move out of the cell due to the absence of both cell wall and phospholipid bilayer. Photosynthesis can only occur due to the presence of chlorophyll since chlorophyll is responsible for trapping energy from sunlight and produce excited electrons, hence if a leaf has no chlorophyll, it is unable to process photosynthesis.
Iodine can be used to detect the presence of starch in sample. Remember the structure of a plant, how does plant store glucose ? Isn't it in terms of starch?
Don't forget to always referring back to your controlled results, variables and time.
Hope this helps!

[Shadaura]

By limitations do you mean the limiting factors of photosynthesis or the limitations of the prac? When we refer to limitations of pracs in class we usually talk about the things affecting the prac so the results aren't 100% accurate.