Optimum solar resource utilization in giant clams

8 October 2021

Alison Sweeney
Departments of Physics and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Yale University

zoom recording

Abstract

Photosynthesis presents a paradox of solar energy: the maximum quantum efficiency of plant photosystems likely surpass that of any engineered system, but in environments with high solar flux, photosynthetic organisms are famously wasteful and resource inefficient. For example, even in agricultural systems bred for maximum resource efficiency such as switch grass and maize, only a few percent of the energy of the solar resource becomes accessible, fixed carbohydrate in the mature plants. Surprisingly, giant clams, which are symbiotic with unicellular algae at extreme solar flux intensities may be the most solar-resource-efficient organisms on Earth.

Our prior experimental work on this system supports the hypothesis that the clam/algae system absorbs nearly all the solar flux incident on them at the equator and with unprecedentedly high efficiency, transduces that solar energy into chemical energy, with minimal photoinhibition experienced by the algae. Our theory talk will briefly outline our earlier experimental results, and then focus on presenting a new, physical explanation of how the system accomplishes this, and why it may represent a true optimum design for solar resource utilization efficiency using biological photosynthesis.

current theory lunch schedule