Controlled Environment Guidelines for Plant Research

Controlled Environment Guidelines for Plant Research contains the proceedings of the Controlled Environments Working Conference held in Madison, Wisconsin, on March 12-14, 1979. The papers propose guidelines for measuring and reporting environmental conditions in controlled environment facilities that affect plant growth, including temperature, radiation, carbon dioxide, soil moisture, atmospheric moisture, and air movement. They also suggest how to perform measurements accurately and in ways that can be repeated by other investigators. Organized into 34 chapters, this volume begins with an overview of measurement, instrumentation, and procedures for growing plants in controlled environments. It then turns to a discussion of radiation measurements for plant growth studies in controlled environments; principles of heat transfer; plant response to increased humidity; humidification and dehumidification; carbon dioxide variations within plant growth chambers; and watering of plants in controlled environments. The reader is also introduced to precision and replication of measurements, along with interactions among environmental factors such as water, light intensity, mineral supply, temperature, air pollution, and nutritional preconditioning. Biologists and engineers, as well as plant physiologists and physicists, will find this book extremely useful.