Plant Growth Facilities for Experimental Botany

近年来，生态学家和其他生物学家开始认识到生理学研究在了解自然界中特定动植物物种分布方面的重要性。这种对植物的研究，以及相关的遗传和系统分析，需要控制良好的生长设施，以便在可复制的条件下饲养植物。决定和随意改变光照强度、日照长度和温度等因素的能力对于研究植物对环境的生理和形态反应至关重要。除了在理解生态学方面的应用之外，对环境因素影响的研究最终可以在作物新品种和改良品系的开发中发挥重要作用。该奖项提供的资金将用于在费尔班克斯的阿拉斯加大学建设一个研究温室的规划阶段。建筑费用由大学承担。预计还将获得NSF的一项补充奖励，为温室提供环境控制系统，并为温室综合体提供植物生长室。该大学目前缺乏足够的生长室和温室设施，这是为数不多的，如果不是唯一的，能够很好地研究北极和亚北极环境的大学之一的主要缺点。此外，温室的建设将提高与费尔班克斯附近最近建立的长期生态研究基地合作进行的研究的质量。

In recent years, ecologists and other biologists have come to appreciate the importance of physiological studies in understanding the distribution of particular animal and plant species in nature. Such studies of plants, as well as related genetic and systematic analyses, require well-controlled growth facilities so that plants can be raised under reproducible conditions. The ability to determine, and to alter at will, factors such as light intensity, day length and temperature is crucial for investigation of the physiological and morphological responses of plants to their environments. Beyond their use in understanding ecology, studies of the effects of environmental factors can eventually play an important role in the development of new and improved strains of crop plants. The funds provided by this award will initiate the planning phase of the construction of a research greenhouse at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. Costs of construction are to be assumed by the University. A supplementary NSF award to provide environmental control systems for the greenhouse and to provide plant growth chambers to be housed in the greenhouse complex is anticipated. The University currently lacks adequate growth chamber and greenhouse facilities, a major shortcoming of one of the few, if not only, universities well- positioned for significant studies of Arctic and Subarctic environments. Furthermore, construction of the greenhouse will improve the quality of studies to be performed in collaboration with the Long Term Ecological Research Site recently established near Fairbanks.