Gulp Equipe –

Research project

The upper limits of terrestrial photosynthesis

Project summary

A fraction of the scientific community has a dream: to feed the world and produce unlimited sustainable energy with just three free and abundantly available ingredients: carbon dioxide, water and light. The simplistic view is that “Photosynthesis uses those three ingredients to produce chemical energy stored as carbohydrates and oxygen”. And according to this view, harnessing photosynthesis would inevitably translate into the production of more energy, of more food and would also solve a number of problems such as climate change. But the story is not so simple. Photosynthesis is not per se biomass production and any possible increase in photosynthesis which may be obtained by engineering terrestrial plants not only demand solar energy, water and carbon dioxide. Other limitations may come into play and operate in the real world to impose what can be called the “upper limits of photosynthesis”. How far photosynthesis may be increased before other biophysical limitations come into play? This question will be the object of the discussion among the 5 interdisciplinary scientists of the GULP-Team. During the residency, the Team will prepare a publication that will address questions about those limitations and will discuss the ideas with other residents and interdisciplinary stakeholders. All this will be made starting from novel data that will beprovided by ongoing research projects, and by bridging those data to a deeper understanding and a modeling approach in a genuine interdisciplinary effort.