Upgrading of Operations of the National Phytotron

杜克大学申请资金来加强国家植物园。为了获得对植物活动和交换过程的基本理解和发展预测模型，需要进入复杂的受控环境条件。Phytotron是由美国国家科学基金会支持的国家研究设施，成立于1968年，由40个人工照明的CE生长室和6个温室组成，为环境植物生物学的高级研究提供了超过477平方米的受控环境空间。Phytotron拥有学生、博士后科学家和资深科学家，其中大多数是校外用户。CE单元用于再现不同类型的环境——从北极到沙漠再到热带。这使研究人员能够精确控制环境条件，例如空气温度、辐照度、二氧化碳、相对湿度和营养物质浓度，从而允许研究植物与环境之间复杂的相互作用，这在自然不受控制的野外条件下几乎是不可能做到的。这项提议将为行政单位提供新的监测设备、新的生长室以满足对环境控制的新要求、升级温室材料和控制单位，以及支付技术和监督需要的薪金。国家植物实验室的持续支持将加强NSF对生态学研究的投资，包括研究生和研究生教育，并将使国家植物实验室继续成为美国生态学中最重要的受控环境研究中心之一。

Duke University requests funds to enhance the National Phytotron. To obtain fundamental understanding and to develop predictive models of the processes that mediate plant activities and exchanges requires access to sophisticated controlled environment conditions. The Phytotron, an NSF-supported national research facility established in 1968, consists of 40 artificially lighted CE growth chambers and 6 glasshouses that provide more than 477 M2 of controlled environmental space for advanced research in environmental plant biology. The Phytotron hosts students, postdoctoral scientists, and senior scientists, most of whom are off - campus users. The CE units are used to reproduce different types of environments -- ranging from the arctic to the desert to the tropics. This allows researchers to have precise control over environmental conditions, e.g., air temperature, irradiance, carbon dioxide, relative humidity, and nutrient concentration, thereby allowing for research on the complex interactions between plants and their environment, which is virtually impossible to do under natur al uncontrolled field conditions. This proposal would provide for new monitoring equipment for the CE units, new growth chambers to meet newer demands for environmental controls, upgraded glasshouse materials and control units, and salaries for technical and oversight needs. The continued support of the National Phytotron enhances NSF s investment in ecological research, including graduate and postgraduate education, and will allow the National Phytotron to remain one of the most important centers for controlled environment research in ecology in the United States.