View article

Changes in the efficiency of light interception and in the costs for light harvesting along the light gradients from the top of the plant canopy to the bottom are the major means by which efficient light harvesting is achieved in ecosystems. In the current review analysis, leaf, shoot and canopy level determinants of plant light harvesting, the light-driven plasticity in key traits altering light harvesting, and variations among different plant functional types and between species of different shade tolerance are analyzed. In addition, plant age- and size-dependent alterations in light harvesting efficiency are also examined. At the leaf level, the variations in light harvesting are driven by alterations in leaf chlorophyll content modifies the fraction of incident light harvested by given leaf area, and in leaf dry mass per unit area (M _A) that determines the amount of leaf area formed with certain fraction of plant …