Plant: The Solar Energy Collector

Abstract

This chapter describes the third subsystem of the Soil–Plant–Atmosphere System (SPAS). As the title indicates, the plant is here described in order to understand the processes that involve the conversion of solar energy into the different products of plant dry matter. Photosynthesis, respiration, growth, and development are studied from the agricultural point of view, remembering that plants are the only living organisms capable of transforming solar energy in food. Some growth and development models are described with discussions on crop phenology, carbon partition in the plant, and notions of plant anatomy necessary for the understanding of water flow from the soil to the plant and further to the atmosphere.