scholarly journals (295) Measuring and Reporting Growing Conditions in Controlled Environments

HortScience ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 1009B-1009
Author(s):  
Marc W. van Iersel

Do you accurately measure and report the growing conditions of your controlled environment experiments? Conditions in controlled environment plant growth rooms and chambers should be reported in detail. This is important to allow replication of experiments on plants, to compare results among facilities, and to avoid artefacts due to uncontrolled variables. The International Committee for Controlled Environment Guidelines, with representatives from the U.K. Controlled Environment Users' Group, the North American Committee on Controlled Environment Technology and Use (NCR-101), and Australasian Controlled Environment Working Group (ACEWG), has developed guidlines to report environmental conditions in controlled environment experiments. These guidelines include measurements of light, temperature, humidity, CO2, air speed, and fertility. A brochure with these guidelines and a sample paragraph on how to include this information in a manuscript will be available.

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-8
Author(s):  
M. V. Tulyakova ◽  
G. A. Batalova ◽  
S. V. Permyakova

There have been presented the study results of 11 collection hulled oats samples in comparison with the standard variety ‘Krechet’ conducted at the Falenskaya selection station of the FARC the North-East (the Kirov region) in 2018–2020. The purpose of the current study was to identify sources stable on the trait ‘1000-grain weight’ for the breeding of hulled oats by estimating the adaptability parameters. The soil of the experimental plot was sod-podzolic, medium loamy, the meteorological conditions were contrasting in temperature and precipitation. In the favorable year of 2019, the 1000-grain weight was the highest (34.6–45.9 g), the index of environmental conditions was positive (Ij = 1.6). In the unfavorable year of 2020, the 1000-grain weight was 31.3–41.8 g and the index of environmental conditions was negative (Ij = -1.5). There have been identified the adaptable sources (IEP = 1.08–1.00) ‘15330 KSI 590/05’ (Russia), ‘15388 Saltaret’ (Moldova), ‘15423 Prelekst’, ‘15426 Werva’ (Germany); the stable sources according to the relative stability of the trait (St2 = 0.99–0.91) ‘15280 55 h 2106’, ‘15331 CSI 2167/03’ (Russia), ‘15297 Geszti’ (Hungary), ‘15388 Saltaret’ (Moldova), ‘15428 Bohum’ (Poland), ‘15420 Leniak’ (Germany); the sources with a high level of intensity (I = 24.5 and 19.30%) – ‘15329 CSI 639/05’, ‘15330 CSI 590/05’ and homeostaticity (Hom = 25.28–11.96) ‘15280 55 h 2106’ (Russia), ‘15297 Geszti’ (Hungary), ‘15388 Saltaret’ (Moldova); the sources responsive to favorable growing conditions (Kp = 1.11–1.28) ‘15329 KSI 639/05’, ‘15330 KSI 590/05’, ‘15331 KSI 2167/03’ (Russia), ‘15414 Enostar’ (Germany); the most adaptive sources in terms of the sum of ranks ‘15330 CSI 590/05’ and ‘15329 CSI 639/05’ (Russia), ‘15388 Saltaret’ (Moldova), ‘15426 Werva, ‘15414 Enostar’ (Germany). There have been identified significant direct correlations between indicators of stability and homeostaticity (r = 0.96), intensity and coefficient of responsiveness (r = 0.73).


2000 ◽  
Vol 122 (05) ◽  
pp. 74-76
Author(s):  
Michael Valenti

This article reviews how agricultural facilities can harvest about two crops per year. The controlled environment agriculture (CEA) facility is a hydroponic project that began operating in July 1999. It uses computer software to control lighting, environmental conditions, nutrient balance, water pH, and other parameters to create optimal lettuce-growing conditions. The agricultural facility’s story began 10 years ago, when a graduate student at Cornell University in Ithaca found that optimizing environmental conditions enabled him to grow seedlings for nurseries in 16 days, rather than the 35 days required by conventional agricultural nurseries. NYSERDA has conducted studies examining the total energy package of conventional agriculture, from producing seed to transporting vegetables to market, and found that northeastern controlled environment facilities will use less energy than shipping produce from the West Coast or South America. Growers also can tout the fact that their produce is grown without herbicides or pesticides, a major marketing advantage to attract consumers seeking organically grown produce.


HortScience ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-256
Author(s):  
Cary A. Mitchell

The most recent platform for protected horticultural crop production, with the shortest history to date, is located entirely indoors, lacking even the benefit of free, natural sunlight. Although this may not sound offhand like a good idea for commercial specialty-crop production, the concept of indoor controlled-environment plant growth started originally for the benefit of researchers—to systematically investigate effects of specific environmental factors on plant growth and development in isolation from environmental factors varying in uncontrolled ways that would confound or change experimental findings. In addition to its value for basic and applied research, it soon was discovered that providing nonlimiting plant-growth environments greatly enhanced crop yield and enabled manipulation of plant development in ways that were never previously possible. As supporting technology for indoor crop production has improved in capability and efficiency, energy requirements have declined substantially for growing crops through entire production cycles in completely controlled environments, and this combination has spawned a new sector of the controlled-environment crop-production industry. This article chronicles the evolution of events, enabling technologies, and entrepreneurial efforts that have brought local, year-round indoor crop production to the forefront of public visibility and the threshold of profitability for a growing number of specialty crops in locations with seasonal climates.


2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-17
Author(s):  
X. Chang ◽  
P. Martin

To investigate whether the fertilizers N, P or K individually affect plant growth, oil content and the gender of sweet gale, two trials, pot and field trials, were carried out at Orkney College UHI in Scotland. A pot trial was established with eight soils which were collected from different sweet gale trial sites in the north of Scotland. Although neither shoot yield nor oil concentration in shoots was affected by soil, there were significant differences in shoot yields as a result of fertilizer treatments (nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) or none (control)). The best yield was obtained from the N treatment which was double to that of the control and P treatments. N, P or K fertilizers did not consistently affect shoot oil concentration in two seasons; however, oil yield was significantly affected, and N treatment produced two-three fold oil yield increases compared with the control or P treatment. In the N treatment, the increase in shoot yield was positively correlated with total nitrogen or nitrate nitrogen in the soil, suggesting the occurrence of a nitrogen priming effect. Data suggested that as shoot yield increased the oil concentration in shoots decreased. Neither soil nor N, P or K fertilizers had a significant effect on oil composition. Amongst fertilizer treatments, P resulted in the largest number of plants changing gender from female to male. A field N trial confirmed that nitrogen significantly enhanced the shoot yield of young plants.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 809
Author(s):  
Hiroya Yurimoto ◽  
Kosuke Shiraishi ◽  
Yasuyoshi Sakai

Methanol is abundant in the phyllosphere, the surface of the above-ground parts of plants, and its concentration oscillates diurnally. The phyllosphere is one of the major habitats for a group of microorganisms, the so-called methylotrophs, that utilize one-carbon (C1) compounds, such as methanol and methane, as their sole source of carbon and energy. Among phyllospheric microorganisms, methanol-utilizing methylotrophic bacteria, known as pink-pigmented facultative methylotrophs (PPFMs), are the dominant colonizers of the phyllosphere, and some of them have recently been shown to have the ability to promote plant growth and increase crop yield. In addition to PPFMs, methanol-utilizing yeasts can proliferate and survive in the phyllosphere by using unique molecular and cellular mechanisms to adapt to the stressful phyllosphere environment. This review describes our current understanding of the physiology of methylotrophic bacteria and yeasts living in the phyllosphere where they are exposed to diurnal cycles of environmental conditions.


Author(s):  
Anna Langstroff ◽  
Marc C. Heuermann ◽  
Andreas Stahl ◽  
Astrid Junker

AbstractRising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns will affect agricultural production substantially, exposing crops to extended and more intense periods of stress. Therefore, breeding of varieties adapted to the constantly changing conditions is pivotal to enable a quantitatively and qualitatively adequate crop production despite the negative effects of climate change. As it is not yet possible to select for adaptation to future climate scenarios in the field, simulations of future conditions in controlled-environment (CE) phenotyping facilities contribute to the understanding of the plant response to special stress conditions and help breeders to select ideal genotypes which cope with future conditions. CE phenotyping facilities enable the collection of traits that are not easy to measure under field conditions and the assessment of a plant‘s phenotype under repeatable, clearly defined environmental conditions using automated, non-invasive, high-throughput methods. However, extrapolation and translation of results obtained under controlled environments to field environments is ambiguous. This review outlines the opportunities and challenges of phenotyping approaches under controlled environments complementary to conventional field trials. It gives an overview on general principles and introduces existing phenotyping facilities that take up the challenge of obtaining reliable and robust phenotypic data on climate response traits to support breeding of climate-adapted crops.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 892
Author(s):  
Valda Gudynaitė-Franckevičienė ◽  
Alfas Pliūra

To have a cleaner environment, good well-being, and improve the health of citizens it is necessary to expand green urban and suburban areas using productive and adapted material of tree species. The quality of urban greenery, resistance to negative climate change factors and pollution, as well as efficiency of short-rotation forestry in suburban areas, depends primarily on the selection of hybrids and clones, suitable for the local environmental conditions. We postulate that ecogenetic response, phenotypic plasticity, and genotypic variation of hybrid poplars (Populus L.) grown in plantations are affected not only by the peculiarities of hybrids and clones, but also by environmental conditions of their vegetative propagation. The aim of the present study was to estimate growth and biochemical responses, the phenotypic plasticity, genotypic variation of adaptive traits, and genetically regulated adaptability of Populus hybrids in field trials which may be predisposed by the simulated contrasting temperature conditions at their vegetative propagation phase. The research was performed with the 20 cultivars and experimental clones of one intraspecific cross and four different interspecific hybrids of poplars propagated under six contrasting temperature regimes in phytotron. The results suggest that certain environmental conditions during vegetative propagation not only have a short-term effect on tree viability and growth, but also can help to adapt to climate change conditions and grow successfully in the long-term. It was found that tree growth and biochemical traits (the chlorophyll A and B, pigments content and the chlorophyll A/B ratio) of hybrid poplar clones grown in field trials, as well as their traits’ genetic parameters, were affected by the rooting-growing conditions during vegetative propagation phase. Hybrids P. balsamifera × P. trichocarpa, and P. trichocarpa × P. trichocarpa have shown the most substantial changes of biochemical traits across vegetative propagation treatments in field trial. Rooting-growing conditions during vegetative propagation had also an impact on coefficients of genotypic variation and heritability in hybrid poplar clones when grown in field trials.


1993 ◽  
Vol 130 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Bennett ◽  
Geoffrey S. Boulton

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to demonstrate that much of the ‘hummocky moraine’ present within the northern part of the LochLomond Readvance ice cap formerly situated in the North West Scottish Highlands may be interpreted as suites of ice-front moraines deposited during active decay. These landforms can be used to reconstruct ice cap decay, whichleads to important insights into the shrinking form of the ice cap and associated environmental conditions. Evidence has been collected from 10803 airphotographs and from detailed field survey. It is presented at three spatial scales.


2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg J. Rebetzke ◽  
Ralph (Tony) A. Fischer ◽  
Anthony F. van Herwaarden ◽  
Dave G. Bonnett ◽  
Karine Chenu ◽  
...  

Genetic and physiological studies often comprise genotypes diverse in vigour, size and flowering time. This can make the phenotyping of complex traits challenging, particularly those associated with canopy development, biomass and yield, as the environment of one genotype can be influenced by a neighbouring genotype. Limited seed and space may encourage field assessment in single, spaced rows or in small, unbordered plots, whereas the convenience of a controlled environment or greenhouse makes pot studies tempting. However, the relevance of such growing conditions to commercial field-grown crops is unclear and often doubtful. Competition for water, light and nutrients necessary for canopy growth will be variable where immediate neighbours are genetically different, particularly under stress conditions, where competition for resources and influence on productivity is greatest. Small hills and rod-rows maximise the potential for intergenotypic competition that is not relevant to a crop’s performance in monocultures. Response to resource availability will typically vary among diverse genotypes to alter genotype ranking and reduce heritability for all growth-related traits, with the possible exception of harvest index. Validation of pot experiments to performance in canopies in the field is essential, whereas the planting of multirow plots and the simple exclusion of plot borders at harvest will increase experimental precision and confidence in genotype performance in target environments.


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