Effect of light intensity variations on the rate of photosynthesis of algae: A dynamical approach

In biology, it is common practice to describe the photosynthetic activity of algae (P) with respect to light (I) by means of static models in the form of single-valued functions P = f(I). This implies that the photosynthetic response to any light variation is instantaneous. However, experimental results have repeatedly provided evidence that the variations of photosynthetic activity arising from the changes in the underwater light climate are subject to time delays and cannot, usually, be characterised by means of a single-valued function, making the validity of these static models questionable. In this article, we propose a dynamic model for photosynthesis that is able to account for the experimental results.