Environmentally Controlled Plant Growth Chambers for Under- graduate Laboratories

通过购买四个受控环境的生长室，波莫纳学院生物系正在创建一个设施，在植物生长和繁殖的各个方面进行实验。这些实验将在几个不同的分支学科中提高对高年级生物学专业学生的训练：(1)它将允许研究温度、光照水平、日照长度和湿度对植物代谢、生长和发育的许多方面的影响（植物生理学）；(2)通过为植物育种研究提供同质环境，可以测量可量化性状的遗传力，从而研究自然和人工选择对多基因性状的影响（进化生物学）；(3)提供同质环境，有利于植物间竞争效应的实验研究（生态学）。这些实验将训练本科生的技术，不仅在纯研究中有价值，而且在农业等应用领域也有价值，并将有助于产生对植物生物学的兴趣和兴奋。

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.