It's the comment equivalent of the 'Lorem Ipsum' dummy text beloved of the printing and typesetting industry, when they need specimen words to illustrate how a piece of text would look: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua (it's not Latin, although it has roots in that language).
Something similar happens in plants. When the rate of respiration is more than the rate of photosynthesis, the biomolecules present in plants break down to compensate the reduced rate of photosynthesis. This results in loss of dry weight of the plant. Views Â· View Upvotes.
Because in photosynthesis carbon dioxide is taken in, and in photorespiration carbon dioxide is given off, these two processes work against each other. The end result is that photorespiration decreases the net amount of carbon dioxide which is converted into sugars by a photosynthesizing plant. By interfering with photosynthesis in this way, photorespiration may significantly limit the growth rate of some plants.