11/08/1991

New Plant Science Center Completed on AU Campus

AUBURN, Ala.—Auburn University scientists already are moving plants into the recently completed, 10,800-square-foot Plant Science Research Center on campus. The facility will supply state-of-the-art greenhouse and laboratory space for Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station research.

The Plant Science Research Center (PSRC) consists of approximately 5,000 square feet each of laboratory space and climate-controlled greenhouse space, plus necessary office space. It is located on Woodfield Drive between South College Street and Donahue Drive.

Each of the 10 greenhouses in the complex has its own heating and cooling system and each is hooked up to a data logger system. The system can monitor temperature, radiation and humidity in time increments from one minute to several hours. From this scanning data, it can print out graphs and charts to allow scientists to follow climatic differentials in the individual greenhouses.

Use of the PSRC is set up much like outlying units of the Agricultural Experiment Station, which are located throughout the state. Scientists present project outlines that have been approved by the Director's Office to the PSRC Superintendent. "Currently, we already have enough project outlines, to utilize about 85 percent of our greenhouse space," noted Charles Elkins, interim superintendent of the facility.

The 10 30-by-36-foot greenhouses have individual, but identical, two-phase heating and three-phase cooling systems. The heating system consists of two gas heaters, which can operate together or independent of one another. At level one, the cooling system simply circulates outside air. At level two, recirculating fans are turned off and a second large fan is used to move a higher volume of air through the greenhouse. At level three, a curtain is mechanically drawn over the roof to reduce the amount of heat trapped inside and water is pumped through an evaporative cooling system and into the greenhouse.

Three of the houses are equipped with flexible benches that can be adjusted to provide additional space for plants in the greenhouse. Some are equipped with lights that can be used to extend the photoperiod of plants.

"The data logger will be of tremendous help in providing scientists with data that take into account differences within the greenhouse. In the old greenhouse facility this was not possible. Neither was precise management of humidity or temperature. The computer system in the new facility has sensors that detect temperatures that exceed preset ranges, and a computer is programed to sound an alarm and/or dial home phone numbers to let us know these temperature extremes are occurring," Elkins noted.

The new PSRC, which ultimately will include potting and mixing and other corollary facilities, replaces greenhouses, head houses and laboratory space located adjacent to Funchess Hall. In addition to being outdated, and in large part unusable, these old facilities sit on a site which is ticketed for future University expansion, so a new facility was vital to ongoing plant science research efforts.

"Depending on the size of the individual projects, we hope to provide space for 35-50 projects," noted David Teem, associate director of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station. "The primary purpose of the PSRC is to help Experiment Station scientists to meet the challenges that face Alabama agriculture in the 1990s and into the 21st century," Teem concluded.

-30-

By:
Roy Roberson