Macintyre_etal_2002.html

MacIntyre et al 2002 j MacIntyre, Hugh L., Todd M. Kana, Tracy Anning and Richard Geider 2002 Photoacclimation of photosynthesis irradiance response curves and photosynthetic pigments in microaglae and cyanobacteria photoacclimation J. Phycology 38 1 17-38

from optimization models, would expect the pigments (photosynthetic membrane component) to increase to compensate for low light

alpha^C = absorption cross section area per chl * quantum yield * Chla/C_in_cell

alpha ^C is carbon fixed per light

absorption cross section area is photons intercepted per chla

quantum yield is C fixed per photon

It's not just the chlorophyll absorption but all the accessory pigments that help acclimate to low light.

carotenoid:Chla ratio

changes within a limited range and decreases as light increases

but - decline starts at subsaturating light

cyanobacteria have phycobilins:Chla that are over a wider range

decrease in Chla is associated with increase in non-photosynthetically active protective pigments

two major points

1. Cells don't maximize to low light as expected by simple models

2. Cells don't maximize to high light either

the authors think that this could be because of photoinhibition or photo-oxidation damage and protection from photo-oxidation