Controlled Environment Chambers for Plant and Insect Research

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

This award provides partial support for the replacement of five outdated environmental chambers with state-of-the-art, walk-in chambers for which temperature, light and humidity can be fully controlled and monitored. The new chambers will allow properly controlled experiments in the ecology, evolution, behavior, development, physiology, genetics, and molecular biology of plants and insects. New chambers will allow researchers to control temperature, light and humidity in order to rigorously determine their effects on important plant and insect traits. In addition, a high degree of control over the growth environment will ensure that any differences seen between experimental groups are a result of the treatments and not due to phenotypically plastic responses by the organisms studied. The new facilities will support an active group of over two dozen researchers and their students. The chambers will provide opportunities for graduate and undergraduate research and education for a large and diverse population of students, including women and minorities. Research uses are expected to lead to advances that will improve our understanding and management of the natural environment, and of our understanding of plant development and growth. The chambers will enable study of plant-insect interactions that will lead to progress in basic understanding and in management practices for agricultural and reserve lands.