Advanced photosynthesis equipment for enhanced capacity in Nova Scotia's indoor and outdoor agriculture sector.

在过去的几十年里，加拿大的农业产业已经看到了环境控制的温室和室内（人造光）农业生产系统的兴起。在新斯科舍省，这些类型的农业生产系统每年贡献超过2000万美元，占其农业经济的10%。此外，由于商业大麻生产最近已合法化，对当地新鲜农产品的需求激增，环境控制的农业生产系统的经济贡献预计将增加。为了帮助该行业在该省的发展和扩大，需要确定作物光合作用的最佳环境条件（CO2，温度，营养和光照），以提高产量和产品质量。生产者面临的问题是，光合作用的最佳环境条件是基于调查单一环境因素对作物影响的研究所提出的建议，而没有考虑到环境因素相互作用影响作物光合作用的能力，这反过来又会影响产量和产品质量。因此，当生产者不考虑环境因素如何相互作用以进行植物光合作用时，生产者可能不会为作物提供最佳生长条件，因为环境因素之间的相互作用影响作物光合作用的能力。另一方面，由于这些相互作用，生产者也可能提供不必要地浪费资源（超过环境条件）的环境，而不会导致作物产量或质量的提高。因此，有必要研究不同的环境条件如何相互作用，以影响作物光合作用在环境控制的设置，以提高生产效率，提高作物产品质量，以及最大限度地降低成本。为了进行这项研究，新斯科舍省社区学院的环境和农业技术实验室正在要求一个光合作用仪，以提供一个独特的研究机会，目前在该地区没有。

Over the past several decades, Canada's agriculture industry has seen the rise of environmentally-controlled greenhouse and indoor (artificial lights) agriculture production systems. In Nova Scotia, these type of agricultural production systems contribute over 20 million dollars a year, representing 10% of its agriculture economy. Furthermore, as commercial cannabis production has recently been legalized and the demand to obtain fresh local produce surges, the economic contribution of environmentally-controlled agricultural production systems is expected to rise. To help this industry grow and expand in the province, identifying optimal environmental conditions (CO2, temperature, nutrients, and light) for crop photosynthesis is needed to improve yields and product quality. The issue for producers is that optimal environmental conditions for photosynthesis are based on recommendations created from research investigating single environmental factor impacts on crops, not taking into consideration that environmental factors interact to affect the ability of crops to photosynthesize, which in turn will impact yields and produce quality. Thus, when producers don't consider how environmental factors interact to have plant photosynthesis, producers may not be providing optimal growing conditions for the crop because the interaction among environmental factors are impacting the ability of the crop to photosynthesize. On the other hand, due to these interactions producers may also be providing environments that needlessly waste resources (exceed environmental conditions) that don't result in increased crop yields or quality. As a result, there is a need to investigate how different environmental conditions interact to affect crop photosynthesis in an environmentally-controlled setting in order to improve production efficiency, increase crop produce quality, as well as minimize costs. To conduct this research, Nova Scotia Community College's Environment and Agriculture Technology Lab is requesting a photosynthesis meter to offer a unique research opportunity currently not available in the region.