A Unified Plant Energy–Biomass Framework Based on Absorption Dynamics and Photosynthetic Energy Conversion

Abstract

Plant growth and productivity emerge from continuous exchanges of energy and matter between plants and their surrounding environment. Solar radiation, atmospheric carbon dioxide, water, and mineral nutrients together drive photosynthesis, respiration, and biomass formation. Although plant physiology has developed detailed biochemical and molecular descriptions of these processes, most existing models treat material absorption, energy conversion, and biomass accumulation separately, limiting systems-level integration.

This study proposes a unified plant energy–biomass framework that explicitly links absorption-driven mass flow, photosynthetic energy conversion, and environmentally constrained biomass growth within a physically and biologically consistent structure. The framework integrates classical mass-flow relations to represent material uptake with validated photosynthetic energy balance equations that quantify radiant energy absorption, conversion efficiency, and respiratory losses. Environmental limitation factors—including light, temperature, water availability, CO₂ concentration, and nutrient supply—are incorporated as scaling terms that modulate energy efficiency and growth.

A key feature of the framework is the explicit distinction between phenomenological energy indices describing biological activity and physically validated energy equations governing photosynthetic power and biomass formation. This separation prevents dimensional ambiguity while maintaining compatibility with established thermodynamic and physiological principles. The resulting formulation provides a scalable, transparent description of plant energy flow across temporal scales ranging from seconds to growing seasons. The framework complements existing biochemical models by offering a physically grounded systems perspective applicable to crop productivity analysis, ecological energy balance studies, and plant growth optimization under variable environmental conditions.