Dragaera

Linguistics and population

Mon Jul 26 11:38:30 PDT 2004

On Mon, 2004-07-26 at 09:51, Ken Koester wrote:
 
> >And I certainly don't see how the calories the plants miss because of the
> >overcast can be replaced.
> >
> >  
> >
> This one I don't understand.  The caloric content of plants shouldn't 
> vary with sunlight.  Do you mean
> that there will be fewer calories available from plants because there 
> will fewer plants?
 
Actually, it isn't all that complicated.  _Principles of Field Crop
Production_ by Martin, Leonard, and Stamp, third edition, page 76 has a
very convenient chart showing how plants are effected by various light
spectra.  Turns out "orange-red" is right up there; you don't lose very
much.

-- 
Steven Brust	skzb at dreamcafe.com
"Preacher, don't the bible have some pretty specific things to say about
killing?"  "Quite specific.  It's rather fuzzier, however, on the
subject of kneecaps." -- Firefly