Cost and color of photosynthesis

The question of why plants are green has been revisited in several articles recently. A common theme in the discussions is to explain why photosynthesis appears to absorb less of the available green sunlight than expected. The expectation is incorrect, however, because it fails to take the energy cost of the photosynthetic apparatus into account. Depending on that cost, the red absorption band of the chlorophylls may be closely optimized to provide maximum growth power. The optimization predicts a strong influence of Fraunhofer lines in the solar irradiance on the spectral shape of the optimized absorption band, which appears to be correct. It does not predict any absorption at other wavelengths. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11120-009-9522-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.