Environmentally Controlled Plant Growth Chambers for Under- graduate Laboratories

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Through the purchase of four controlled-environment growth chambers, the Pomona College Biology Department is creating a facility in which to conduct experiments on a variety of aspects of plant growth and reproduction. These experiments will improve the training of upper- division biology majors in several different sub-disciplines: (1) it will permit the investigation of the effects of temperature, light levels, day length, and humidity on many aspects of plant metabolism, growth and development (Plant Physiology); (2) by providing homogeneous environments for plant breeding studies, it will allow the measurement of heritabilities of quantifiable characters, and hence the study of the effects of natural and artificial selection on polygenic traits (Evolutionary Biology); (3) by providing homogeneous environments, it will facilitate experimental investigations of the effects of competition among plants (Ecology). These experiments will train undergraduate students in techniques valuable not only in pure research, but also in applied fields such as agriculture, and will help to generate interest in and excitement about the biology of plants.