CONCLUSIONS

As stated in our hypothesis, the Crassula ovata leaf had the highest average rate of photosynthesis because it has a dark green color meaning it had a large amount of chlorophyll to conduct the most photosynthesis. This species of leaf also had a high rate of change in photosynthesis and respiration and had the lowest average rate of change in respiration. This is because there was more photosynthesis occurring than respiration.

The Pachysandra leaf didn’t have a high rate of photosynthesis because it had the lowest rate of change in photosynthesis. This is because it was had a yellow color and yellow leaves have less chlorophyll to conduct photosynthesis.

Our conclusion correlates with the study (Nazarian & Murie, 2003) to show that as there is a higher rate of photosynthesis there is a lower rate of respiration in plants with greater amounts of chlorophyll.

Another study (Savonen, 2003) supports our experiment in that red leaves have chlorophyll. We know this because the Acer palmatum leaf had the second highest average rate of photosynthesis/surface area.