How a chemical reaction depends on temperature is often parameterized by the Arrhenius function (blue line). Enzyme-mediated reactions respond to temperature in a more complicated manner: high temperatures reduce the catalytic effect exerted by the enzymes (red line). The optimal temperature (
) is not always close to the temperature of enzyme denaturing. The temperature response of photosynthesis, for example, is often drawn as a bell-shaped curve (green line). This type of temperature response can be modeled with the generalized Arrhenius function, if
.
