The response of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) leaves to iron deficiency can be described as consisting of two phases. In the first phase, leaves may lose a large part of their chlorophyll while maintaining a roughly constant efficiency of photosystem II photochemistry; ratios of variable to maximum fluorescence decreased by only 6%, and photon yields of oxygen evolution decreased by 30% when chlorophyll decreased by 70%. In the second phase, when chlorophyll decreased below a threshold level, iron deficiency caused major decreases in the efficiency of photosystem II photochemistry and in the photon yield of oxygen evolution. These decreases in photosystem II photochemical efficiency were found both in plants dark-adapted for 30 minutes and in plants dark-adapted overnight, indicating that photochemical efficiency cannot be repaired in that time scale. Decreases in photosystem II photochemical efficiency and in the photon yield of oxygen evolution were similar when measurements were made (a) with light absorbed by carotenoids and chlorophylls and (b) with light absorbed only by chlorophylls. Leaves of iron-deficient plants exhibited a room temperature fluorescence induction curve with a characteristic intermediate peak I that increases with deficiency symptoms.