The research of the Biophysics group deals with the effects of important abiotic environmental factors related to climate change (such as irradiance and spectral composition, air temperature, CO2 concentration) on the assimilatory apparatus of higher plants, ranging from the mechanisms regulating the utilization of incident radiation to the response of photosynthetic activity at the leaf, plant and ecosystem level. Protective and acclimatory processes at the molecular and metabolic level which reduce the damage of the photosynthetic apparatus under adverse environmental conditions are also intensively studied. Main research topics are described in detail below.
The experimental and methodological background of our research (see Laboratories and instrumentation ) is based mainly on the use biophysical techniques of optical spectroscopy for examining the structure and functional state of the assimilatory apparatus and biochemical technigues (especially chromatographic and electrophoretic methods) for the examination of components of the assimilatory apparatus (photosynthetic pigments, secondary metabolites, pigment-protein complexes of thylakoid membranes, etc.).